Wedding hall demanding "Change the date"... Prospective newlyweds hit by double booking nightmare

Marriage Demand Increases with Endemic, Damage Rises
184 Cases in 2023, Up 65.7% in Two Years

As COVID-19 becomes endemic, leading to a surge in weddings, consumer damages related to wedding preparation agency services are also increasing.

On the 18th, Song Seok-jun, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the People Power Party, received data from the Korea Consumer Agency showing that a total of 471 consumer damage relief applications related to wedding preparation agency services were filed from 2021 until last month.

There were 111 cases in 2021, which increased to 176 last year, and this year, up to August, a staggering 184 cases have been reported. This represents a 65.7% increase over two years.

In particular, this year, with the "return to normal" due to the endemic, the number of damage cases is expected to rise further.

Contract cancellations and penalties account for 94.1%... "Management and supervision by relevant authorities needed"

[Image source=Pixabay]

Among the types of damages, contract-related issues such as cancellations and penalties accounted for 94.1%, making up the majority.

There were cases where wedding halls were booked through agencies, but due to system errors causing duplicate contracts, clients were asked to change their wedding dates.

Also, the average fee for wedding preparation agency services was 2.02 million KRW, with penalties amounting to 420,000 KRW, which is 21% of the fee.

The Korea Consumer Agency investigated the penalty rates in damage relief applications related to contract cancellations and found that 16.2% of cases demanded penalties exceeding 30% of the total agency fee.

Among 67 damage relief applications related to contract non-fulfillment, many complaints concerned the quality of wedding photos and albums.

There were cases where the quality of wedding photos was inferior to the samples confirmed at the time of contract, or where studios that took the photos did not receive payment from the agency and thus did not provide the wedding photos.

Assemblyman Song emphasized, "With the peak wedding season in autumn approaching, there are concerns that consumer damages will increase further. Consumers should carefully check the contract details before signing, and relevant authorities must thoroughly manage and supervise businesses to prevent further damages."

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