Consumer Agency: Over Half of Textile Product Consumer Disputes Are Business Responsibility

(Photo by Korea Consumer Agency)

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] Among consumer disputes related to textile products, consumer responsibility accounts for less than 2 out of 10 cases.

The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 20th that this was the result after reviewing 5,004 cases submitted to the Textile Products Deliberation Committee last year.

In the review of consumer disputes related to textile products and laundry services, the responsibility of businesses such as 'manufacturing defects' and 'inappropriate washing methods' accounted for 53.0% (2,651 cases).

Among these, the responsibility of manufacturers and sellers was 43.3% (2,169 cases), and that of laundry service providers was 9.7% (482 cases). Consumer responsibility due to 'carelessness in handling' was only 17.0% (852 cases).

By type, manufacturing defects (36.1%) were the most common, followed by durability defects (31.2%) and dyeing defects (24.6%).

In particular, among manufacturing defects, defects in labels, logos, and decoration adhesion increased by 51.4% compared to 2018, and defects such as shedding increased by 61%, indicating a need for quality control efforts.

The responsibility of laundry service providers was 9.8% (482 cases), with inappropriate washing methods accounting for 55.4% and inexperienced use of solvents and detergents accounting for 11.6%.

By item, requests for review of jumpers or jackets were the highest at 13.6%, followed by pants (5.9%), shirts (5.9%), and coats (4.5%).

Based on the analysis results, the Consumer Agency plans to hold meetings with manufacturers, sellers, and laundry service providers to request improvements in quality control.

The Consumer Agency urged, "Please pay attention to the handling precautions attached to the products and, if possible, promptly retrieve washed products to immediately check for any defects."

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