Apple Pay Fees Under Scrutiny at National Assembly Audit... Hyundai Card CEO Selected as Witness

Vice Chairman Jeong Tae-young Excluded

The National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee is summoning the CEO of Hyundai Card as a witness for the national audit. This is interpreted as a reflection of concerns that excessive fees paid during the introduction of Apple Pay could trigger cutthroat competition in the industry and reduce consumer benefits.

According to the industry on the 4th, the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee has selected Kim Deok-hwan, CEO of Hyundai Card, and Mark Lee, CEO of Apple Korea, as witnesses for the national audit and has requested their attendance. The reason cited is "consumer cost burden and inconvenience issues arising from the introduction of Apple Pay."

Hyundai Card is reported to be paying Apple a fee of about 0.15% of the payment amount as a commission for introducing Apple Pay for the first time in Korea. Considering that the Apple Pay commission rate in China is 0.03%, this is five times higher. In July, the Card Company Labor Union Council pointed out that Hyundai Card caused the Korean card industry to lose bargaining power over this issue.

Accordingly, the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee is interpreted to have selected them as witnesses out of concern that the burden on card companies would increase and consumer benefits would decrease. However, Chung Tae-young, Vice Chairman of Hyundai Card, who was initially mentioned, was excluded from the witnesses.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

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