The Korea Consumer Agency and the Fair Trade Commission have recommended that four major online shopping malls in South Korea be required to provide clear explanations about the original price, which serves as the reference price before discounts. The agencies also advised that general discounts, which apply to all consumers, and maximum discounts, which only apply when certain conditions are met, should be clearly distinguished. Furthermore, they called for improvements to make it easier for consumers to check the conditions for applying discount coupons.

The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 19th that, according to data collected from the 1372 Consumer Counseling Center from 2022 to 2025, there were a total of 606 consumer consultations related to online shopping mall price discount advertisements over the past four years. The yearly figures were 144 cases in 2022, 150 in 2023, 132 in 2024, and 180 in 2025.

The Consumer Agency investigated the practices of price discount advertisements for 1,335 products listed on four major online shopping malls, including Coupang, Naver, Gmarket, and 11st. The investigation covered 800 sets of Lunar New Year gift products and 535 time-limited discount products. The findings revealed some cases where the original price was increased to exaggerate the discount rate, or the product continued to be sold at the same or even lower price after the time-limited discount period ended.

According to the current "Notice on the Types and Standards of Misleading Representations and Advertisements," raising the original price to exaggerate the discount rate constitutes a misleading representation or advertisement.

Analysis of the changes in original prices before and after the discount events for 800 Lunar New Year gift product sets during the last Lunar New Year revealed that 12.8% (102 items) had their original prices increased during the discount period, thus exaggerating the discount rate. Notably, 2.0% (16 items) had their original prices inflated to more than double the pre-event price, with some products even being raised by more than three times.

By shopping mall, Coupang had the highest rate at 23.0%, followed by Naver at 13.0%, Gmarket at 9.0%, and 11st at 6.0%.

Gmarket image. Gmarket

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According to the Online Dark Pattern Voluntary Management Guidelines, businesses must not falsely inform consumers that discounts or benefits are available only for a limited time. In particular, issues frequently arise when it is advertised that a product can be purchased at a discount for a limited time, but the same price continues after the period ends.

Analysis of the price trends on the day of, one day after, and seven days after the end of time-limited discounts for 535 products offered in January showed that 20.2% (108 items) still had the same or even lower prices after the event. Specifically, 17.9% (96 items) maintained the same price the day after the discount ended, and 2.2% (12 items) saw their prices drop. Even seven days after the discount ended, 12.0% (64 items) were still sold at the event price, while 1.5% (8 items) were sold at an even lower price.

By shopping mall, Naver had the highest rate at 37.0%, followed by 11st at 35.4%, Gmarket at 14.3%, and Coupang at 2.2%.

Since the party responsible for determining the product price is the marketplace seller, the legal responsibility for misleading representations and advertisements rests primarily with the seller. However, both the Consumer Agency and the Fair Trade Commission explained that platforms are also obliged to cooperate to prevent violations of the law by sellers using their platforms.

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Based on the findings of this investigation, the Fair Trade Commission and the Consumer Agency held two rounds of business meetings with the Korea Online Shopping Association and the four major online shopping malls. The meetings were held on March 18 and April 10, and after listening to industry feedback, the two agencies recommended improvements to the way price discounts are displayed.

At the meetings, opinions were raised that incorrect practices in displaying original prices have persisted in the online market for a long time, resulting in relatively low awareness and compliance among sellers regarding these obligations. Accordingly, the two agencies decided to first encourage voluntary compliance by improving systems for entering and displaying product information at the platform level, rather than immediately imposing sanctions on sellers.

Specifically, to prevent arbitrary adjustment of original prices for the purpose of exaggerating discount rates, the agencies recommended adding detailed explanations of the original price on each product's detail page. Sellers are also required to include warnings on the product registration page indicating that false or exaggerated price claims may lead to legal liability.

Additionally, it was recommended that the discount rate be calculated based on the general discount that applies to all consumers, and that the conditions for receiving a conditional discount, which only applies when certain requirements are met, be clearly displayed in close proximity. This is to ensure that consumers can easily distinguish between the minimum and maximum discount rates that apply to them.

The agencies also recommended improvements to the coupon issuance process, so that consumers can easily check key information such as validity periods and usage conditions. Furthermore, each platform was advised to strengthen its own monitoring to quickly identify and address misleading representations and advertisements, and to distribute and educate marketplace sellers about the Online Dark Pattern Voluntary Management Guidelines to encourage compliance.

The four major online shopping malls accepted the recommendations for improving the display of price discounts after two rounds of meetings and submitted their implementation plans.

The Fair Trade Commission plans to immediately encourage voluntary correction for marketplace sellers found to be in violation of the law during this investigation. The agency also announced that if similar violations are repeated in the future, strict sanctions will be imposed. The Consumer Agency and the Fair Trade Commission expect that these measures will improve practices for displaying prices and discount rates, which play a decisive role in purchasing decisions, and will reduce consumer confusion.

The two agencies called on major platforms to improve their systems to prevent sellers from breaking the law and emphasized that marketplace sellers must accurately indicate original prices and discount rates based on objective grounds. Consumers were advised to use price comparison websites to check the average selling price and price fluctuations for the product they wish to purchase, and to make careful purchasing decisions.

The Consumer Agency stated, "We will continue to closely monitor the practices of online shopping malls before and after large-scale discount events in cooperation with the Fair Trade Commission," and added, "If we identify any false or exaggerated representations, we will promptly take corrective action to create a transaction environment where consumers can make rational choices based on accurate information."