Gyeonggi-do Takes Steps to Improve Unfair Trade Practices in Open Markets... Creating Standard Contracts

Kim Ji-ye, Director of the Fair Trade Bureau of Gyeonggi Province, is holding a press conference on the improvement of unfair transactions in open markets on the 14th.

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has independently prepared a standard contract to improve unfair terms and trading practices of 'open markets.'

On the 14th, Gyeonggi Province announced that it had created the 'Gyeonggi Province Open Market Fair Standard Contract' to improve and supplement the existing open market seller terms of use, as the abuse of trading status by platform companies, such as discriminatory exposure of products for sale, has caused significant damage to tenant businesses.

An open market is an e-commerce platform that allows individuals or small businesses to directly register and sell products online.

Earlier, from April to September, the province reviewed the seller terms of use of six major open markets and found multiple clauses potentially violating the Terms and Conditions Act, including arbitrarily deciding or changing the exposure order and position of products for sale, placing all burdens of transaction disputes on sellers, and arbitrarily changing service usage fees.

In response, the province informed each open market company of these review results and requested improvements. However, only one out of the six companies promised voluntary correction within the fourth quarter, which led to the independent creation of the fair standard contract this time, the background was explained.

The standard contract prepared by the province includes key contents such as strengthening the responsibility of open market companies, preventing unfair platform practices like arbitrary determination of product exposure order and copyright issues, enhancing personal information protection measures, and allowing local governments to perform autonomous dispute mediation tasks.

Kim Ji-ye, Director of the Fair Trade Bureau of the province, stated, "To ensure that the creation of the fair standard contract in the open market sector does not remain a declaration, we plan to actively encourage open market operators to use the standard contract and deliver the draft to the Fair Trade Commission to request cooperation so that it can be utilized not only in Gyeonggi Province but nationwide."

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