Party and Government: "This Week's Completion of Refund Support for Timf General Products... 500 Billion Won Invested"

The People Power Party and the government decided on the 6th to complete the refund process through credit card companies within this week for general product damages to compensate consumers affected by the unsettled payment incident involving TMON and WEMAKEPRICE (TMEP). Additionally, they agreed to provide a total liquidity of 500 billion KRW, including 200 billion KRW in emergency management stabilization funds and 300 billion KRW in credit guarantee fund financial support to the affected companies. To prevent a recurrence of the 'TMEP incident,' they decided to shorten the settlement period for e-commerce companies and mandate separate management of sales proceeds.

On the same day at 9 a.m., the party and government held a consultation meeting at the National Assembly to discuss measures to prevent recurrence and directions for institutional improvement related to the TMEP incident, announcing these decisions afterward. Previously, the Financial Supervisory Service identified that as of the 1st of this month, the amount of unsettled sales proceeds was 278.3 billion KRW. Including transactions for June and July, whose settlement deadlines are approaching, the total damage is expected to be close to 1 trillion KRW. In response, the government formed a joint task force (TF) with related ministries on the 29th of last month and decided to supply liquidity exceeding 560 billion KRW as emergency management stabilization funds.

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Han Dong-hoon, leader of the People Power Party, said in his opening remarks, "The first principle in such matters is to minimize damage," and requested broad and swift support from the government. Choi Sang-mok, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, explained, "We will consider additional liquidity supply if necessary." Kim Sang-hoon, chairman of the Policy Committee, told reporters after the consultation, "I also requested a review of whether interest rates on emergency liquidity funds can be lowered further and whether limits per company can be increased." Furthermore, the party and government agreed to consider support for wage arrears, including advance payments and living expense loans, if such cases arise.

The party and government plan to shorten the settlement period for e-commerce to prevent misuse of settlement funds similar to the TMEP incident. Leader Han said, "For consignment-type e-commerce, the introduction of escrow (payment protection service) should be proactively considered." After the consultation, Chairman Kim stated, "(The government) will shorten the legally stipulated settlement period for e-commerce companies' electronic payment gateway (PG) services from the current 40 to 60 days, which is shorter than that of large-scale distribution, and establish an obligation to separately manage sales proceeds, while strengthening supervision of PG companies." They intend to strengthen registration requirements and management guidance standards for PG companies and establish legal grounds to sanction those that fail to meet these standards, thereby preventing e-commerce companies from operating PG businesses or minimizing payment risks by heavily reflecting the company's financial status during PG registration. Deputy Prime Minister Choi added, "For gift certificate issuing companies, prepaid charges will also be managed 100% separately."

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