Consumer Agency Finds 1 in 4 Live Commerce Broadcasts Contain False or Exaggerated Advertising

Cases of Unfair Advertising in Live Commerce Food Products.

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Chun-han] One out of four live commerce broadcasts was found to contain unfair advertising content. Live commerce is a compound word of live streaming and e-commerce, referring to an interactive online shopping channel that introduces and sells products while communicating with viewers in real time.

On the 16th, the Korea Consumer Agency announced that, after inspecting 120 broadcasts from five live commerce platforms between October 19 and 30 last year, 30 broadcasts contained content that could be considered unfair labeling and advertising.

Among the 30 cases, 14 (46.7%) had potential violations of the "Food Labeling and Advertising Act." In particular, six advertisements for health functional foods were broadcast without undergoing prior advertising review by the Korea Health Functional Food Association, which is required. Additionally, there were six cases (20%) each of advertisements potentially violating the "Cosmetics Act," such as those that could cause consumers to misunderstand cosmetics as medicines, and advertisements violating the "Labeling and Advertising Act" by using absolute expressions like "lowest price" without empirical evidence. The remaining four cases (13.3%) involved general consumer goods being portrayed as medical devices, potentially violating the "Medical Device Act."

In a survey conducted from November 19 to 24 last year targeting 500 consumers who had experience using live commerce in the past year, 81.6% of respondents perceived live commerce as similar to TV home shopping.

Regarding satisfaction with 11 service items, live commerce scored higher than TV home shopping in nine items, including product price and discounts, additional benefits such as points, and convenience of consultation. TV home shopping led in two items: ease of exchange/refund and delivery service.

As for development plans for live commerce (multiple responses allowed), "strengthening the management and supervision responsibilities of live commerce operators over sellers" accounted for the largest share at 68.8%. This was followed by "mandatory pre-broadcast education for sellers on live commerce" (61%) and "introduction of a real-time viewer reporting function for inappropriate expressions and behaviors" (50.8%).

Based on the results of this survey, the Korea Consumer Agency recommended that live commerce platform operators provide education on advertising-related laws to sellers and introduce reporting functions for sellers who do not comply with regulations.

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