Eliminating 'Meoktwi Shopping Mall' Damage... Establishment of 'Consumer Collective Damage Response Council'

Mr. A purchased a luxury bag worth 3 million won from the luxury purchasing agency shopping mall 'Sakrastrada.' When the bag did not arrive even after a month, Mr. A contacted the shopping mall to cancel the transaction. However, there was no response. More than 600 consumers, like office worker Mr. A, were scammed by this 'eat-and-run shopping mall.' 'Sakrastrada' lured consumers by pretending to sell high-priced luxury bags, shoes, wallets, and clothing at discounted prices, embezzling at least 750 million won in product payments.

To minimize consumer damage, consumer organizations and open markets autonomously and proactively share information related to collective consumer damage quickly. This helps minimize further spread of consumer harm. Since fraud shopping mall damage involving embezzlement of consumer payment funds occurs nationwide on an ongoing basis and spreads rapidly, it was judged important to block consumer inflow at an early stage.

Additionally, a 'Consumer Collective Damage Response Council' has been established and operates. The council consists of open market operators, business organizations, and consumer organizations. The steering committee meets regularly every six months. Specific operating procedures such as deliberation and resolution methods of the steering committee are prepared through consultation.

The platform private autonomous organization announced the 'Open Market Consumer Collective Damage Rapid Response Plan' based on these contents on the 11th. The Fair Trade Commission could issue suspension orders and close shopping malls through the 'temporary suspension order' system (Article 32-2) under the Electronic Commerce Act. However, it usually took several months to take action, during which damage continued, revealing limitations.

The Korea Consumer Agency continuously monitors trends in collective consumer complaints. After selecting target businesses to share based on collective consumer damage criteria, it shares the status of collective consumer damage with 10 open markets and requests response measures. The 10 open markets are Naver, Kakao, Coupang, Gmarket, 11st, Interpark, Wemakeprice, Tmon, Musinsa, and Lotte ON. Open markets proceed with procedures such as requesting explanations from users if necessary. Also, to enable flexible responses depending on the situation, various measures including search exposure restrictions are devised through each company’s operating policies. For example, search exposure may be limited, or a caution mark may be displayed in front of the product name registered by the business, and clicking the mark shows a message such as 'This business is subject to consumer damage caution.' Revisions to terms and policies to establish contractual grounds are also being promoted.

Meanwhile, the 'Platform Private Autonomous Organization' is a discussion body formed to establish voluntary regulation measures in the platform market by the private sector itself, launched on August 19 last year. It consists of four subcommittees: Gap-Eul (supplier-consumer relations), Consumers/Users, Data/AI, and Innovation Sharing/Governance, each discussing voluntary regulation measures.

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