Fair Trade Commission Corrects Unfair Terms on Luxury Platforms' 'No Refund' Policy

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunju Lee] Unfair terms and conditions that disadvantage consumers will largely disappear from online luxury platforms (Balan, Trenbe, Mustit, OK Mall) in the future. The Fair Trade Commission investigated unfair terms that restrict refunds or evade responsibility in case of damages and ordered corrections.

On the 21st, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it reviewed the terms and conditions of four domestic online luxury platform operators and corrected eight types of unfair terms. Luxury platforms are platforms that connect sellers and consumers to trade high-priced overseas brand products online.

From now on, consumers who purchase overseas luxury products on these platforms will be able to get refunds. The platforms had previously not recognized or vaguely defined consumers' right of withdrawal under the Electronic Commerce Act due to overseas purchase and overseas delivery. The Fair Trade Commission deleted unclear reasons for restricting withdrawal and allowed exchanges and returns within a certain period after receiving overseas purchased products.

The responsibility of businesses for consumer damages occurring within the platform will also be strengthened. The Fair Trade Commission found it unfair to customers that the platforms did not intervene in disputes between resident businesses (seller members) and consumers (buyer members) and made all members bear the responsibility, and ordered corrections. From now on, businesses must bear a certain portion of responsibility for consumer damages occurring within the platform. Also, even if there was negligence by members regarding personal information leakage, the platform can no longer be fully exempted from responsibility.

Furthermore, the platform will bear certain responsibilities if consumer damages occur due to service usage disruptions or if posts registered by members infringe third-party copyrights. The Fair Trade Commission explained, "In this review, we considered the characteristic of luxury platforms guaranteeing product authenticity through their own inspection even when they are not parties to the transaction," and added, "Considering these unique characteristics of luxury platforms, we strengthened the responsibility of platform operators."

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