Kakao Files Administrative Lawsuit with Fair Trade Commission "Unfair Sanctions Only on Melon"

"Melon Did Not Notify Early Termination Application"
Fair Trade Commission Imposes 98 Million KRW Fine on Kakao
Kakao "Sufficiently Notified... Supports Early Termination"

Kakao recently filed an administrative lawsuit challenging the Fair Trade Commission's sanctions related to Melon's mid-term cancellation feature.

According to industry sources on the 16th, Kakao filed a lawsuit at the Seoul High Court earlier this month to cancel the Fair Trade Commission's corrective order and fine.

On the 21st of last month, the Fair Trade Commission announced that Kakao violated the Electronic Commerce Act by not sufficiently informing consumers that mid-term cancellation requests were possible while selling subscription-based music services through Melon or KakaoTalk from May 2017 to May 2021, and imposed a corrective order and a fine of 98 million KRW.

Currently, Melon is operated by Kakao Entertainment, but the administrative lawsuit was filed by Kakao, which operated Melon until September 2021 and was the subject of the Fair Trade Commission's sanctions.

At the time of the Fair Trade Commission's announcement, Kakao Entertainment explained, "Even before the Fair Trade Commission's investigation, Melon sufficiently provided mid-term cancellation guidance and notices through 'web FAQ' and 'precautions before payment,' and supported mid-term cancellations via the web (PC version) cancellation button and customer center."

Kakao Entertainment stated, "During the review process of this case, we clearly changed the terminology related to cancellation requests and completed the implementation of the mid-term cancellation feature across all sales channels by July 2021. To this day, all subscription services in Korea, except for Melon, either do not provide a mid-term cancellation feature or allow it only through customer centers," they added.

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