Last Year, 2,195 Online Platform Damage Relief Applications... 40% Did Not Receive Compensation

Consumer Agency Analyzes Consumer Damage in E-commerce

Continuous Increase in Consumer Damage from Online Transactions
Especially Many Contract-Related Damages

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] As consumer patterns have shifted to non-face-to-face transactions due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) and other factors, online transactions have rapidly increased, resulting in a continuous rise in consumer damages. In particular, more than 40% of consumer damages related to online platforms did not receive compensation.

According to the Korea Consumer Agency on the 24th, the number of damage relief applications related to online transactions last year was 16,974, showing an annual increase. ▲ 2016: 10,331 cases ▲ 2017: 12,601 cases ▲ 2018: 13,648 cases ▲ 2019: 15,898 cases, totaling 69,452 damage relief cases over the past five years (2016?2020).

Consumer damages were mostly related to contracts such as contract cancellation/termination and excessive penalties. Contract-related damages accounted for 63.6% (44,189 cases), followed by 'quality and after-service (AS)' related damages at 5.1% (3,544 cases), and 'safety' related damages at 3.6% (2,499 cases).

Among the 69,452 damage relief applications, disputes related to the nine major 'online platform operators' accounted for 15.8% (10,947 cases). Of these, the proportion of consumers who received compensation through refunds, reimbursements, or contract cancellations was 58.6% (6,420 cases). Cases where compensation was not received due to insufficient evidence or unknown seller identity information accounted for 40.8% (4,464 cases), which is relatively lower than the settlement rates in other fields.

A representative from the Consumer Agency stated, "To efficiently resolve consumer damages related to online platforms, platform operators need to actively provide identity information about sellers, mediate between sellers and consumers, and efforts should be supported by institutional improvements."

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