Copyerland posted 15,000 fake purchase review ads through 'Binbox Marketing'... Fair Trade Commission imposes fines and corrective orders

Sending Empty Boxes to Part-Timers as If They Purchased the Products Themselves, Then Writing Fake Reviews
First Case of 'Empty Box Marketing' Caught

Example of an empty box delivered. Although the item was a 'document shredder,' a small plastic bag typically used for delivering a small quantity of books and documents was delivered instead.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Copyerland, an office equipment and supplies online shopping mall, and the advertising agency UN Media recruited part-timers and had them write and post fake purchase reviews as if they were actual buyers, resulting in sanctions from the Fair Trade Commission. This is the first case caught involving the so-called 'empty box marketing' practice.

On the 14th, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it decided to impose corrective orders (including public announcement orders) and a fine of 35 million KRW on Copyerland, and corrective orders on UN Media for posting false review advertisements.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, from September 2020 to February 2021, Copyerland and UN Media posted about 15,000 fake review advertisements using the empty box marketing method on internet shopping malls where Copyerland’s products such as shredders and laminators were sold.

Copyerland and UN Media had part-timers purchase products using their personal IDs and payment methods to evade the review manipulation detection systems of online shopping malls like Naver, then sent empty boxes without products via courier to obtain the authority to write reviews?this is the so-called 'empty box marketing.'

In this process, the advertising agency UN Media was responsible for recruiting part-timers under the chat name 'ReviewOne,' instructing them to purchase and write reviews, and paying them for writing reviews. The advertiser Copyerland handled refunding the purchase price based on the part-timers’ purchase records and sending the empty boxes.

The Fair Trade Commission judged that the review advertisements written by part-timers under the instructions of Copyerland or UN Media were not 'purchase reviews' written by actual buyers, so the existence of the reviews themselves, as well as the number and content of the reviews, were all false. It also found that consumers could be misled or likely to be misled into believing that many people had already purchased the products and that the products had excellent quality and performance. Furthermore, due to the increase in the number of reviews, ratings, and purchase counts of Copyerland products caused by Copyerland and UN Media’s actions, the search ranking on shopping malls rose, which could directly harm competing businesses in the online market.

A Fair Trade Commission official said, "Empty box marketing is a new form of review manipulation different from previously known methods such as deleting unfavorable reviews or writing fake reviews using employees or acquaintances. It involves an unspecified large number of people in illegal review manipulation and posts a large volume of false reviews on online shopping malls alongside competing businesses’ products, causing significant negative effects not only on fair trade order but also socially."

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