Fair Trade Commission Fines "Big Five" Couriers Including Coupang and CJ 3 Billion Won for Shifting Safety Accident Liability to Agencies

Crackdown on Chronic Delayed Contracts and Unfair Clauses
Abuse of Power Including “Immediate Termination for Image Damage”

Five major delivery companies that dominate over 90% of the domestic parcel delivery market have been caught en masse by the Fair Trade Commission for engaging in serious abuses of power against their franchisees and subcontracted logistics terminal operators. These abuses included shifting liability for safety accidents onto subcontractors and failing to provide contracts in a timely manner.

Unfair Contract Clauses Exposed: Transferring Liability, Arbitrary Termination, and More

The Fair Trade Commission announced on May 18, 2026, that it has decided to impose corrective orders and fines totaling 3,078,000,000 won on five parcel delivery businesses—Coupang Logistics Service (CLS), CJ Logistics, Lotte Global Logistics, Hanjin, and Logen—for setting unfair special contract terms and failing to issue written contracts to subcontracted operators (such as franchisees and terminal operators) when outsourcing services.

This investigation began in August 2025 after heat-related illnesses and safety accidents among delivery workers emerged as a major social issue, prompting the Fair Trade Commission, together with the Ministry of Employment and Labor and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, to conduct unannounced inspections at worksites. Upon thoroughly reviewing a total of 9,186 contracts from these five companies, the Fair Trade Commission found a large number of unfair special clauses that the major delivery firms had surreptitiously included in the contracts by abusing their superior market positions.

The types of unfair clauses uncovered include forcing franchisees to cover civil and criminal liabilities, fines, and even legal fees incurred as a result of the delivery company’s own failure to fulfill its management and oversight obligations. In addition, ambiguous clauses such as “damaging the company’s image” were inserted, enabling the companies to pressure franchise owners by allowing immediate contract termination without providing any opportunity for explanation or warning procedures.

Chronic ‘Delayed Contracts’ Practice: Contracts Delivered as Late as 761 Days After Service Begins

The fundamental safeguard of “advance issuance of written contracts” in subcontracting transactions was also severely undermined. These five companies failed to issue contracts in a total of 2,055 cases until after the commencement of services such as parcel collection and delivery.

By company, Coupang was responsible for the most violations with 1,047 cases, followed by Lotte with 580, Hanjin with 227, and CJ with 144. In particular, Lotte Global Logistics was found to have issued contracts as late as 761 days after the start of services, exposing a chronic practice of delayed contracting.

Taking into account the enormous market impact of these large delivery companies, which are affiliates of corporate groups subject to cross-shareholding restrictions, the Fair Trade Commission determined that the legal violations were far from minor. As a result, it imposed an additional heavy fine of 600 million won solely for violations related to the failure to issue written contracts.

Racing for Quick Commerce Expansion While Overlooking Coexistence and Safety

The domestic parcel delivery market is witnessing intense logistics competition due to the routinization of online shopping and the rapid growth of the quick commerce sector, including overnight and same-day delivery services. The top five companies control 90.5% of the market.

Major delivery companies have been criticized for focusing exclusively on rapidly expanding their logistics networks to meet the demands of shippers and consumers, while neglecting to establish fair business practices with subcontractors and to invest in or take responsibility for the safety of their workers.

The Fair Trade Commission stated, “We have taken measures to comprehensively revise and remove the unfair special clauses that large delivery companies have misused as tools for controlling franchisees in the domestic delivery market. Going forward, we will continue to rigorously monitor and strictly sanction unfair contract terms and the failure to issue written contracts, especially in areas closely related to daily life.”

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