"This Is the Last Time"... Lotte Home Shopping Ranks No.1 in Consumer Deception on Home Shopping

2nd CJ OnStyle, 3rd Home&Shopping and SK Stoa
All detected cases received only 'caution and warning' light penalties

Among home shopping channels, Lotte Home Shopping was found to have committed the most false and exaggerated acts.

On the 9th, according to data submitted by the Korea Communications Standards Commission (hereinafter 'KCSC') to Ha Young-je (Independent), a member of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Committee, there were 60 cases of legal sanctions imposed for consumer deception by home shopping from 2021 to August of this year.

The representative deceptive acts of these home shopping channels involved selling various products under false titles such as "first and last" and "final live broadcast." They promoted the products as if there would be no chance to purchase them again if not bought immediately, but sold the same products again after a certain period. There were also cases of exaggerating product performance or broadcasting false information.

However, among the 60 detected cases, there was not a single instance of the highest level of legal sanction by the KCSC, which is the imposition of fines; all were limited to caution or warning measures.

By channel, Lotte Home Shopping received the most sanctions with 10 cases, followed by CJ OnStyle with 9 cases. Next were Home&Shopping (6 cases), SK Stoa (6 cases), GS SHOP (5 cases), Shinsegae Shopping (5 cases), NS Home Shopping (5 cases), Hyundai Home Shopping[057050] (4 cases), and K Shopping (4 cases). The products sold on home shopping channels where deceptive acts were detected varied widely, including clothing, detergents, vacuum cleaners, cosmetics, fire extinguishers, food, health supplements, airtight containers, and overseas study programs.

Consumer deception by home shopping channels has not decreased recently. Legal sanctions by the KCSC on home shopping were 21 cases in 2021, slightly decreased to 19 cases in 2022, but have already reached 20 cases as of August this year.

Regarding this, Assemblyman Ha pointed out, "The reason why false and exaggerated advertising by home shopping that deceives consumers is not eradicated is due to the lenient sanctions that do not even impose fines," adding, "The sluggishness of the home shopping industry is largely due to losing consumer trust."

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