Consumer Agency: "Unit Prices Must Be Displayed on Online Shopping Malls as Well"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seungjin Lee] The Korea Consumer Agency recommended on the 30th that online shopping malls display unit prices for processed foods, fresh foods, and daily necessities, just like large supermarkets.

In offline stores such as large supermarkets, unit prices must be displayed for 84 items where it is difficult for consumers to compare prices based solely on the selling price, according to the "Price Display System Implementation Guidelines." However, online shopping malls are not required to display unit prices, making it difficult for consumers to compare prices.

Accordingly, the Consumer Agency recently investigated the unit price display status of 19 major domestic online shopping malls and found that 14 malls did not display unit prices at all. The remaining 5 malls displayed unit prices for some items. The survey covered 20 products each from 79 to 82 items per shopping mall, totaling 29,780 products, of which only 5,679 (19.1%) displayed unit prices.

Among three large supermarket malls, 4,138 out of 4,640 products (89.2%) displayed unit prices, whereas among eight open markets, only two malls displayed unit prices, with only 1,541 out of 13,120 products (11.7%) showing unit prices. None of the eight general malls displayed unit prices.

Based on this survey result, the Korea Consumer Agency requested the Korea Online Shopping Association and shopping mall operators at a meeting to establish a system for displaying unit prices in online shopping malls and to encourage telecommunication sales vendors operating within these malls to display unit prices.

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