Hacker's Operating Online Cafe Recommending 'Pretending to Be a Test Taker' Lectures Fined by Fair Trade Commission

7.8 Billion KRW Fine Imposed by the Fair Trade Commission on the 12th

Hackers, which operated 16 online cafes by mobilizing employees and advertised Hackers' lectures and textbooks pretending to be test-takers, has been fined and ordered to take corrective measures by the Fair Trade Commission.

According to the Fair Trade Commission on the 12th, Hackers Language Institute, Champ Study, and Gyoam (hereinafter referred to as ‘Hackers’) operated 16 online cafes and actively used the cafe main pages, author nicknames, and posts as channels to recommend and promote their own lectures and textbooks without disclosing their affiliation with Hackers. The 16 cafes include Dokgonsa, Kyungsumo, and TOEIC Camp.

Since Hackers did not indicate their affiliation on the main pages, author nicknames, or posts, general test-takers who joined the cafes perceived the recommendation posts and comments about Hackers as being written by ordinary test-takers rather than employees.

In specific cases where Hackers recommended and promoted their own instructors and textbooks, employees used administrator IDs and personal IDs to write promotional posts, recommendation comments, course reviews, and Hackers event posts about Hackers lectures, instructors, and textbooks as if they were ordinary test-takers.

The Fair Trade Commission regarded such advertising practices as ‘deceptive advertising’ that concealed important facts and hindered consumers’ rational decision-making, and imposed a fine of 780 million KRW and corrective orders. The Commission stated, “It is significant that major online education companies’ acts of deceiving consumers through deceptive advertising have been detected and sanctioned,” and added, “The Fair Trade Commission will continue to monitor unfair advertising and impose strict sanctions.”

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