'Emart, Lotte Shopping, TMON, Homeplus 365Plus' Outstanding Retailers Blocking Sale of Hazardous Products This Year

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Emart, Lotte Shopping, Tmon, and Homeplus 365 Plus have been selected as the excellent distribution companies for blocking the sale of hazardous products this year.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy's National Institute of Technology and Standards (NITS) announced that it selected four distribution companies that contributed to consumer safety by utilizing the Hazardous Product Sales Blocking System and awarded plaques to excellent operating stores on this day.

The Hazardous Product Sales Blocking System, jointly operated by NITS, the Ministry of Environment, and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, evaluates the hazards of products distributed in the market and delivers hazardous product information to distribution companies. Distribution companies that receive hazardous product information automatically block the sale of hazardous products in real time at offline store checkout counters. For online malls, sales are blocked by identifying hazardous products in product sales information and deleting them from search lists.

Currently, the system is introduced and utilized in about 180,000 stores of 75 distribution companies nationwide. Last year alone, more than 1,700 hazardous products were blocked.

NITS plans to improve the system's security and compatibility within this year so that distribution companies can use hazardous product information more easily and conveniently. Also, with Naver, a major online distributor, planning to introduce the Hazardous Product Sales Blocking System in the second half of this year, NITS expects the safety of products traded online to be further enhanced.

At the plaque awarding ceremony, Lee Sang-hoon, head of NITS, said, "The role of distribution companies close to consumers is important to prevent consumer safety accidents caused by hazardous products," adding, "With the rapid increase in non-face-to-face consumption after COVID-19, we will encourage active participation of online distribution companies and also expand to local department stores, marts, and mid-to-low price distribution stores to promote product safety management at the distribution stage."

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