▲ Wedding (File Photo)
So-called "Sudeume" (wedding studio photography, dress rental, and makeup) businesses have been slapped with a mass wave of fines for omitting essential information such as pricing, cancellation penalties, and refund criteria.
This marks the initial launch of fine-imposing procedures as the government newly pushes forward with a mandatory essential information disclosure system in the wedding service sector.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced on October 16 that it has pre-notified fines for 17 wedding service businesses nationwide that violated the "Notice on Important Representations and Advertisements" (Essential Information Notice).
Since August, the FTC has intensively inspected whether wedding venues or wedding preparation agency businesses displayed detailed items and fees for basic and optional services, cancellation penalties, and refund criteria on either their corporate websites or the Korea Consumer Agency's Price Information Portal (www.price.go.kr), as well as on the cover of their contracts, in accordance with the essential information notice.
The government's core concern stems from the fact that the wedding service market continues to generate damages for prospective couple consumers due to rising wedding costs—including reception meals—unfair demands for additional fees when using Sudeume packages, and the establishment of opaque refund and cancellation penalty standards.
As a result of the inspections, these 17 businesses were caught violating the notice by omitting prices for certain optional items on their internet websites, the Price Information Portal, or contract covers, or by failing to individually display essential information items for each partner business.
The FTC has pre-notified these businesses of the fines and plans to finalize the fine amounts by the end of this month to conclude the imposition procedures.
An FTC official explained, "This measure is significant in that, following the expiration of the grace period for the essential information notice last May and its full implementation, it sternly cracks down on opaque price displays and additional fee demands that have habitually occurred in the wedding service market, thereby guaranteeing rational choices for prospective couples."
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