FTC Launches Fact-Finding Survey on Coupang, Baemin and Others to Assess Fees and Damage Cases

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has launched a fact-finding survey to assess trading conditions between major platforms in delivery, open market, and lodging sectors and their tenant merchants.

The FTC announced that it is commissioning a research study starting today (August 13) through November 12 to examine trading conditions and unfair trade practices between major platforms and tenant merchants.

The research is being conducted to secure foundational data for future online platform policy development.

The FTC diagnosed that as the online platform market has grown rapidly in recent years, disputes between platform operators and tenant merchants have continued to increase, raising the need for policy formulation.

In fact, the number of online platform disputes filed with the Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency surged 4.3 times from 103 cases in 2021 to 445 cases last year.

The research targets three sectors where platform-related complaints are concentrated: delivery, open markets, and lodging.

Targeted platforms are expected to include Baemin (Baedal Minjok), Coupang Eats, Coupang, Gmarket, 11st, and Yeogihere.

The FTC stated that its focus is on understanding the platform market structure and trading conditions across the three sectors, as well as identifying major difficulties faced by tenant merchants.

It plans to re-examine market conditions that have changed since the "Online Platform Sector Fact-Finding Survey" research conducted at the end of 2022, and look into the actual burdens experienced through surveys targeting tenant merchants.

Specifically, the FTC plans to identify difficulties related to costs such as fees, cases of damage experienced across overall transactions, and mediation and resolution experiences when disputes occur.

In addition, to supplement the tenant merchant survey, the FTC will also conduct a written fact-finding survey targeting platform operators.

It plans to investigate platform operators regarding fee and advertising cost structures and status, operational practices across platform transactions, data-related policies and standards, and handling procedures when disputes arise.

An FTC official stated, "We will continue our efforts to establish a fair trading order across the entire online platform market while communicating broadly with platform market participants and experts including academia."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.