Purchased 210L of Cat Litter in One Month and Recommended?…Civic Group Claims "Coupang Manipulated Reviews Through Employees"

Six Civic Groups Including People's Solidarity Report Coupang for Violations of Fair Trade Act and Labeling Advertising Act
Approximately 4,200 Coupang PB Products Sold as of This Month

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] Coupang is suspected of systematically mobilizing employees to manipulate reviews and boost the exposure ranking of its private brand (PB) products. Civic groups have decided to report Coupang to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC).

On the 15th, six civic groups, including the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, held a press conference at the underground Neutinamu Hall of the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy and announced that they would report Coupang to the FTC for violations of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (Fair Trade Act) and the Act on Labeling and Advertising. The civic groups participating in the FTC report include the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, Korea YMCA National Council, Green Consumer Network, the Civil Affairs Committee of the Lawyers for a Democratic Society, the National Emergency Committee to Prevent Coupang's Market Invasion of Small Businesses, and the Korea Consumer Federation.

According to the civic groups, since around July last year, Coupang has systematically instructed its employees to write reviews for certain products without paying them. While giving the highest ratings to PB products, they gave the lowest ratings to competing sellers' products. Furthermore, as it became more difficult to manipulate search rankings, subsidiary employees were also mobilized to manipulate reviews, presumably raising the exposure ranking of PB products.

Additionally, there are suspicions that employees who wrote reviews did not actually experience the products and wrote false recommendation posts. For example, one person suspected to be an employee wrote a recommending review while purchasing 210L of cat litter over about a month. This amount would require owning about 30 cats in one household to consume. The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy explained, "Such actions may mislead or have the potential to mislead customers of competing businesses."

Another problematic factor is that Coupang did not disclose its stakeholders. Since January, Coupang has not displayed phrases such as "Review written by Coupang or affiliate company employees who received the product" or "Review written by Coupang Experience Group," raising suspicions that employees wrote false reviews. It was also investigated that the blue badge of the "Coupang Experience Group," which provides products free of charge to customers selected by Coupang to write usage reviews, was not attached.

The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy stated, "Not indicating phrases such as 'written by Coupang employees' is judged to be a violation of the Act on Labeling and Advertising due to false, exaggerated, or deceptive labeling and advertising."

As of this month, Coupang has about 4,200 PB products launched and sold. In July last year, Coupang was also investigated by the FTC on suspicion of manipulating the search algorithm to prioritize PB products over supplier products.

The People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy said, "In the second half of last year, the European Parliament's Committee on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) passed laws related to online platforms, and the U.S. House Judiciary Committee passed five bills to regulate online platform companies," adding, "The Online Platform Fairness Act currently pending in the National Assembly should also be promptly processed."

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