"There Was a Reason for High Funeral Costs"... Funeral Hall Caught Passing 340 Million Won in Kickbacks Onto Bereaved Families

340 Million Won in Referral Kickbacks Paid to Funeral Directors from 112 Mutual-Aid Companies
Rebate Costs Passed on to Consumers, Doubling Funeral Room Fees

A funeral hall that lured customers by offering kickbacks to funeral directors from mutual-aid companies while bereaved families were in distress will face sanctions from the Fair Trade Commission. This is the first case in which the Fair Trade Act has been applied to penalize the entrenched rebate practices in the funeral industry.

Yangju Korea Hospital Funeral Culture Center (Yangju Funeral Hall) Building. Yangju Funeral Hall Homepage.

On March 5, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it had decided to issue a corrective order against the Yangju Korean Hospital Funeral Culture Center (Yangju Funeral Hall) for providing rebates to funeral directors affiliated with mutual-aid companies in exchange for referring bereaved families.

According to the Fair Trade Commission’s investigation, from November 2021 to August 2025, Yangju Funeral Hall provided a total of approximately 340 million won in kickbacks to funeral directors from 112 mutual-aid companies under the pretexts of "call fees" (a slang term for referral kickbacks) and "altar flower R" (rebates related to altar flowers). For each referral of a bereaved family, the funeral hall paid 700,000 won per case. Additionally, it encouraged the purchase of altar flowers from designated florists, then gave 30% of the payment amount to the funeral director as a kickback.

These rebate costs were entirely passed on to bereaved families in the form of higher funeral expenses. In particular, it was revealed that Yangju Funeral Hall had an internal policy of offering a 50% discount on funeral room prices to bereaved families when no rebates were paid out. In effect, if there had been no kickbacks, families could have used the funeral rooms at half the price.

Park Semin, Head of the Seoul Office of the Fair Trade Commission, stated, “Even though the company’s annual sales are only around 1 billion won, it paid out more than 300 million won in kickbacks during the violation period. This is a serious violation that undermines fair price competition and causes consumer harm.”

The Fair Trade Commission plans to strengthen its monitoring to root out the widespread kickback practices across the funeral industry, using this case as a starting point. Currently, a probe is underway into major funeral halls in five regions nationwide, including those at large university hospitals and other major venues frequently used by consumers.

The Fair Trade Commission said, “Funeral industry rebates drive up the cost of living and increase the financial burden on the public. Depending on the results of the ongoing investigation, we will respond strictly to any confirmed legal violations and urge relevant ministries to improve the system.”

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