Gyeonggi-do Launches Investigation into Unfair Trade Practices of Major Online Shopping Malls

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province is conducting a fact-finding survey on unfair practices between large online shopping malls such as Naver, Coupang, Wemakeprice, Tmon, which are in the blind spot of unfair trade regulations, and the tenant businesses.

On the 29th, Gyeonggi Province announced the 'Plan to Promote a Fact-Finding Survey on Online Transactions to Establish a Sound Electronic Commerce Order' and stated that it will prepare a 'Comprehensive Plan on Fair Trade in Distribution Platforms' within this year.

To this end, the province will open a public contest for the company to conduct the fact-finding survey in early next month, and after expert consultation, will publish the final report on measures to improve unfair practices in November.

This survey will focus on analyzing cases of reports and adjudications, understanding the status of reports from seller community groups, advisory meetings, surveys, and in-depth interviews with victims.

Additionally, through surveys, the province will check the commission structure, unfair trade practices, demands, and desired support policies targeting tenant sellers in the province.

Intermediary online platforms open online markets where multiple sellers register products on the platform, and consumers purchase products from tenant sellers at the cyber mall. Platform companies receive commissions and advertising fees from tenant sellers.

From the perspective of small sellers, there are advantages such as reducing system construction costs and advertising expenses, and overcoming low recognition and trust in the market.

On the other hand, due to the superior position based on high recognition, it is not easy to report and respond to unfair practices by large platform operators.

The province explained that this is because there are no regulatory laws concerning unfair trade practices using online shopping platforms, so sellers are not protected.

In fact, according to last year's 'Gyeonggi Province Large-scale Distribution Sector Unfair Trade Fact-Finding Survey,' 14.8% of sellers responded that they had experienced unfair practices related to contract conclusion on online shopping malls, and 10.2% related to payment of product fees.

The Gyeonggi Provincial Council is currently giving legislative notice on the ordinance concerning fair trade in distribution platform transactions.

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