T-Mef Incident Group Dispute Mediation to Begin Next Month... Long Road Ahead for Consumer Damage Compensation

5899 Consultations in One Week After Incident
Consumer Agency Seeks Victims of Travel-Related Products
Uncertain If Actual Relief Will Follow

The 'collective dispute mediation' procedure to remedy damages caused by the delayed settlements of TMON and WEMAKEPRICE will begin next month. However, with TMON and WEMAKEPRICE having filed for corporate rehabilitation in court, it is expected to take over half a year to complete the dispute mediation. Moreover, if the business operators reject the mediation proposal, there is no way to enforce compliance, making actual compensation difficult.

On the 30th, the Korea Consumer Agency announced that from the 1st to the 9th of next month, it will accept applications for participation in collective dispute mediation from consumers affected by the delayed settlement of sales proceeds from TMON and WEMAKEPRICE through its website. Eligible applicants are consumers who purchased travel, accommodation, or airline ticket refunds from TMON or WEMAKEPRICE and requested contract withdrawal but were refused a refund, or who requested a refund due to contract non-fulfillment but were denied.

Customers are waiting in line for refunds related to the payment delay incident at the Wemakeprice headquarters in Gangnam-gu. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Following the surge in related consultations after the delayed settlement incident involving TMON and WEMAKEPRICE, the Consumer Agency has started recruiting victims beginning with travel-related products, which received the highest number of consultations. According to the 'Status of Consumer Consultations and Damage Relief Requests Related to TMON and WEMAKEPRICE' received by the office of Kang Min-guk, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the People Power Party, from the Consumer Agency, a total of 5,899 related consultations were recorded from the 22nd, when the incident occurred, until the previous day. By category, travel, airline, and accommodation accounted for 3,648 cases (61.8%), the largest share, followed by other items such as furniture, electronics, and gift certificates with 2,251 cases (38.2%).

Collective dispute mediation is a 'fast-track' procedure that swiftly addresses damage relief when large-scale harm involving 50 or more people occurs. If both consumers and business operators agree during the collective dispute mediation and the mediation is established, it has the effect of a court settlement.

However, it is uncertain whether this will lead to actual damage relief. The mediation proposals prepared through collective dispute mediation do not have legal binding force. This means that if the business operator rejects the mediation proposal, it ends there. In such cases, affected consumers must recover damages through legal procedures such as civil lawsuits on their own. As of the previous day, the government estimated the unpaid settlement amount of TMON and WEMAKEPRICE at about 210 billion KRW, while Qoo10 estimated about 50 billion KRW, showing a significant difference in perspectives between the two sides.

Another obstacle is the considerable time required to reach a mediation decision. The Framework Act on Consumers stipulates that the dispute mediation period should be completed within 30 days from the application date. However, this period can be extended in cases of justifiable reasons, and many cases exceed the statutory processing period. In fact, the Consumer Agency entered collective dispute mediation in October 2021 for the Merge Point incident, but the mediation proposal was only prepared in June of the following year.

Victims of Tmon are entering the building and waiting for a response from Tmon at Tmon's new office in Sinsa, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Consumer Agency plans to handle consumer consultations and damage relief procedures through the 1372 Consumer Counseling Center for cases where the contract items are not travel, accommodation, or airline tickets, or for cases other than refund requests related to this delayed settlement incident. A Consumer Agency official said, "We are simplifying the issues of the case and prioritizing collective dispute mediation applications only for travel-related products," adding, "If other items meet the requirements for collective dispute mediation, we plan to recruit victims as well."

This collective dispute mediation is conducted for large-scale consumer damage relief, considering not only the sellers who are parties to the contract but also the online platform operators (TMON and WEMAKEPRICE) that provide intermediary services between consumers and sellers as parties. Therefore, sellers who have not received settlement payments from TMON or WEMAKEPRICE are not eligible for relief.

Separately from this incident, damage relief applications related to TMON and WEMAKEPRICE have been increasing annually. According to Kang's office, damage relief requests amounted to 50.02 million KRW in 2021, increased to 68.76 million KRW in 2022, and soared to 139.91 million KRW last year. This year, as of the previous day, 84.04 million KRW in damage relief applications have been received.

Assemblyman Kang said, "In the past, typical consumer damages in e-commerce occurred in disputes between tenant companies and consumers, but the recent surge in consumer consultations related to TMON and WEMAKEPRICE shows a difference in that disputes between platforms and tenant companies have become the direct cause," adding, "The Consumer Agency should promptly begin work to ensure that the Dispute Mediation Committee's related tasks proceed swiftly."

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