Coupang Files Criminal Charges Against Malicious "Kidnapping Ad" Partners... "Zero-Tolerance Policy"

Criminal Charges Filed Against Over 10 Companies for Obstruction of Business
Confiscation of Earnings and Account Termination for Fraudulent Advertising Partners
"Stronger Sanctions Will Be Introduced if Necessary"

On October 1, Coupang announced that it will file criminal charges against more than 10 malicious partner companies that have repeatedly abused its affiliate marketing service, "Coupang Partners," by forcing users to be redirected to the Coupang website without their consent through so-called "kidnapping ads."

Yonhap News Agency

Coupang Partners is a legitimate affiliate marketing service that allows individuals or corporations to promote Coupang products on their blogs, social networking services (SNS), or websites, and receive a certain percentage of actual purchase amounts generated through advertisements as revenue.

Coupang explained that these malicious partners have habitually violated the Coupang Partners terms of use and operational policies, and have intentionally repeated the same actions despite strong warnings and sanctions. In one case, Company A embedded a Coupang purchase link invisibly in an advertisement they bought on an internet site, causing users who visited the site to be forcibly redirected to Coupang even without clicking. Coupang determined that such actions go beyond a simple violation of terms, as they damage Coupang's brand value and seriously disrupt its business activities, and has initiated legal proceedings.

Previously, Coupang has made various efforts to eradicate fraudulent advertising by certain malicious advertisers, including strengthening its illegal advertising monitoring policy, operating strong penalties such as confiscation of earnings and account termination, expanding the reporting and reward system for fraudulent ads, and establishing dedicated monitoring personnel and systems. This year, Coupang revised its policy to allow for prolonged confiscation of earnings even for a first violation, and to enable account termination for two or more violations, thereby strengthening its operational policy.

The company stated that it will continue to take a firm stance against disruptive ads that infringe on customers' freedom of service choice and digital consumer rights, and will strictly hold all violators of its policies legally and institutionally accountable.

A Coupang representative said, "We will apply a 'zero-tolerance policy' toward fraudulent advertisements that inconvenience users and damage Coupang's brand value," adding, "If necessary, we will introduce even stronger sanctions in the future to eradicate fraudulent advertising."

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