Ballan caught for false discounts... "Eradicate sales to lure customers"

System Overhaul Following Fair Trade Commission Warning

Online luxury platform Ballan announced on the 26th that it will completely overhaul its customer inducement sales system.

This measure comes after receiving a warning from the Fair Trade Commission for inducing consumers through false and exaggerated advertising. The main point is to penalize businesses that set high prices for scarce popular options or falsely register out-of-stock products.

Accordingly, starting in June, the 'option surcharge' feature, which sets different prices for the same product depending on demand, will be completely eliminated. In addition, to eradicate the practice of falsely registering out-of-stock products by vendors, the 'customer compensation responsibility system' will be implemented from the 22nd of next month, providing compensation equivalent to 3% of the payment amount when a product is out of stock.

Ballan stated, "Due to the nature of the luxury category, it is common in the industry to set high prices for scarce popular options or lower prices for unpopular options to deplete stock. However, we have internally detected and penalized cases where this is abused by listing false items at cheap option prices to lure consumers, and we will fundamentally improve this."

Previously, Ballan displayed that a certain brand's sneakers were sold for 300,000 won, but in reality, this price applied only to one size. Also, certain sizes with discounted prices were out of stock, making it impossible for consumers to purchase them, while other sizes were priced at 700,000 to 800,000 won, nearly double the price. The Fair Trade Commission judged that Ballan violated the Electronic Commerce Consumer Protection Act and issued a warning by the examiner's decision.

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