Timeff Faces 'Muk-twi' Allegations Targeting Vacation Peak Season... "Travel Product Discounts Surge Sales 3x"

Increased Risk of Unpaid Settlements
Capital Erosion and Difficulty in Collateral Seizure
Vacation Season and Platform's Own Discount Offensive
3-4 Times More Product Volume Sold, Damage Rises

As TMON and WEMAKEPRICE, which caused a delay in the settlement and refund of thousands of billions of won, have filed for corporate rehabilitation with the court, there are claims that the damage amount of travel products has increased as these platforms launched aggressive marketing targeting the peak summer vacation season. The travel industry suspects that the series of events, including the settlement delay of 'Timep' and the filing for rehabilitation procedures, were intentional acts planned as so-called 'muktwi' (eat-and-run), given the high price nature of travel products.

According to the related industry on the 30th, domestic travel agencies supply secured airline seats and accommodation volumes through platforms considering the travel peak season, and TMON and WEMAKEPRICE have been selling travel products at a significant discount since May. A travel agency official explained, "As TMON and WEMAKEPRICE lost competitiveness in the e-commerce market, they conducted aggressive marketing targeting relatively high-priced travel products," adding, "They poured in their own promotions, partnerships with electronic payment gateway (PG) companies, and credit card companies to expose products at prices about 15-20% lower than the normal price."

He continued, "It is estimated that the inflow through TMON and WEMAKEPRICE was about 3 to 4 times higher than other e-commerce platforms," and "Due to the nature of travel products, one purchaser often makes multiple reservations for family or acquaintances, which increased the damage amount."

Another official said, "There are suspicions in the industry that TMON and WEMAKEPRICE already had the 'escrow' type settlement system they recently mentioned introducing," adding, "It is suspected that they did not use it to embezzle sellers' settlement funds by exploiting management and supervision loopholes."

Escrow is a settlement system linked with a third-party financial institution. Once the customer confirms the purchase, the institution can immediately pay the seller. While other e-commerce platforms utilize this, TMON and WEMAKEPRICE kept the sales proceeds on the platform until the settlement date for each seller before this incident occurred.

The amount unpaid to the travel industry due to this incident is estimated to be around 100 billion won. This accounts for about half of the approximately 210 billion won in unsettled amounts identified by the government from all companies listed on the platforms so far, concentrated on travel-related businesses. Since travel products were sold targeting the summer vacation season and the Chuseok holiday, the damage scale may increase.

Because of this, the atmosphere in the travel industry was somber. The filing for rehabilitation procedures by these platforms made it difficult to recover damages, extinguishing even the slightest hope for a solution.

Travel and accommodation-related companies are bearing not only the unpaid amounts caused by the Timep incident but also penalties from flight and accommodation cancellations and prepaid amounts to secure inventory. However, to minimize consumer damage, they are taking measures to ensure that products with imminent departure dates proceed as scheduled. This is based on the judgment that they must prevent disruptions to those who have been preparing for their trips with excitement and avoid damaging the company image and products sold through normal channels.

Meanwhile, platforms are persuading customers that they will compensate as much as possible for the discount benefits received from each platform so that customers can receive refunds from Timep or credit card companies and rebook the products through travel agencies. However, there is considerable opposition that this shifts the travel agencies' losses onto consumers, so they are not actively voicing their concerns.

A travel industry official said, "Travel agencies and accommodation reservation platforms are also victims of this incident, but they are absorbing losses by issuing their own points or waiving cancellation fees," adding, "The atmosphere is so cautious about revealing the travel agencies' damages that it is a frustrating situation."

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