Wedding Halls' 'Bundling Sales Practices' Persist... Consumer Harm Due to Deposit Refund Refusals

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] #Mr. A booked a wedding hall on February 27 last year. Ten days later, on March 11 of the same year, Mr. A requested contract cancellation due to personal reasons. Although there were more than eight months left until the scheduled wedding date, the deposit refund was refused. The wedding hall cited the reason that Mr. A had a free tasting of the banquet food, making a refund difficult.

It has been revealed that the so-called "bundling" practice, where the use of ancillary facilities is forced at some wedding halls, still persists. Additionally, some refused to refund deposits upon contract cancellation, causing continuous consumer damages.

On the 5th, the Korea Consumer Agency conducted a mystery shopping investigation (evaluating facilities or services by posing as customers) on the transaction conditions of 200 wedding halls in Seoul and six major metropolitan cities from September to October last year. The results showed that 92 locations (46%) required mandatory use of ancillary facilities or services to use the wedding hall.

All these wedding halls required mandatory use of banquet restaurants. In addition, some forced the use of paebaek rooms (42 locations, 31.6%), floral decorations (24 locations, 18.0%), and paebaek attire (22 locations, 16.5%).

Among the surveyed locations, only one wedding hall displayed the standard terms and conditions and usage fees in an easily visible place within the office according to the wedding hall standard terms. Only 47 locations (23.5%) followed the consumer dispute resolution standards regarding deposit refunds upon contract cancellation.

Also, upon checking the websites of 439 wedding halls in Seoul and six major metropolitan cities, only 35 (8.0%) displayed detailed prices for services by product, and only 3 (0.7%) posted penalty information related to contract cancellations. As a result, it was found that prospective couples and other consumers have difficulty obtaining important information without visiting the wedding halls in person.

Among 623 wedding hall-related damage relief applications received by the Korea Consumer Agency from January 2016 to June last year, the most common case was "refusal or delay of deposit refund upon contract cancellation," accounting for 261 cases (41.9%). This was followed by "excessive penalty claims" with 184 cases (29.5%) and "contract non-fulfillment (including incomplete fulfillment)" such as not providing wedding photos with 103 cases (16.5%).

Meanwhile, although professional wedding halls were the most commonly used wedding venues, satisfaction was highest for religious facilities.

According to an online survey conducted by the Korea Consumer Agency targeting 998 people (798 wedding parties and 200 hosts) who used wedding halls in Seoul and six major metropolitan cities over the past two years, 50.9% (508 people) responded that they used professional wedding halls specializing only in weddings. This was followed by general wedding halls that also host first birthday parties and various banquets at 25.3% (252 people), and hotel wedding halls at 14.6% (146 people).

The satisfaction score for wedding venues by the wedding parties was highest for religious facilities at 3.68 out of 5 points, followed by house weddings (3.59 points) held with only a small number of guests, and public institutions (3.52 points).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.