Earphones Priced Around 20,000 Won but Return Fee is 300,000 Won... Excessive Return Fees in Overseas Purchasing Agents

Consumer Agency Investigates Return Shipping Fees for Open Market Purchase Agents
1 in 5 Cases Has Return Shipping Fee Exceeding 100,000 Won

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[Asia Economy Culture Young Intern Reporter] It has been found that the return shipping fees for overseas purchasing agency products through open markets are sometimes more expensive than the product price or differ from the return information stated on the detailed page.

The Korea Consumer Agency recently announced that it investigated the return-related status of products sold by overseas purchasing agency sellers on six open markets (Naver, 11st, Auction, Interpark, Gmarket, Coupang) over the past three years, revealing these findings.

Among 240 purchasing agency products listed on the six open markets, 219 products with accurately confirmed product prices and return costs were examined, and it was found that one in five had return fees exceeding 100,000 KRW. Return fees ranged from a minimum of 2,500 KRW to a maximum of 400,000 KRW, with an average return fee of 61,381 KRW. Cases where the return fee was more expensive than the product price accounted for 33.3% (73 products). Among these, there was a case where the return fee for a 25,600 KRW Bluetooth earphone was set at 300,000 KRW.

Additionally, the provision of return-related information was found to be insufficient. According to the Electronic Commerce Act, return fees must be clearly indicated for consumers, but 8.8% (21 products) either did not display the cost on the detailed page or showed two different costs for a single product. Furthermore, 96.7% (232 products) of sellers did not differentiate return fees based on the delivery stage at the time the consumer requested withdrawal.

To understand the return process status, the Consumer Agency directly purchased and returned 18 products, finding cases where actual return information differed from the notified information. Among 15 products with a notified return address, 10 had return addresses different from the provided ones. Also, among 17 products for which return fees were paid, 12 had actual fees charged by sellers that differed from the notified amounts.

Among the six open markets, Gmarket did not allow online return requests, which could restrict the right to withdraw when customer service was not operating. Regarding this, Gmarket informed the Consumer Agency that it plans to improve the system to allow online return requests within this month.

Based on this investigation, the Consumer Agency plans to recommend reasonable adjustment of excessive return fees and accurate disclosure of return costs to consumers.

Meanwhile, over the past three years (2019?2021), 3,456 consumer complaints related to returns were recorded at the International Trade Consumer Portal and the 1372 Consumer Counseling Center.

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