Deduucting Meeting Counts Just for Sharing Profiles: Marriage Brokerage Consumer Complaints Surge

Consumer complaints regarding matchmaking and marriage brokerage agencies have surged, with cases of agencies deducting contract meeting counts simply for providing a prospective partner's profile.

The Korea Consumer Agency announced the results today (July 24) of its analysis of 1,236 grievance cases related to marriage brokerage services filed between 2023 and 2025.

Contract cancellations and penalty fees accounted for 56.1% of all reported grievance cases.

This was followed by breach of contract at 39.2% and service quality complaints at 1.7%.

Within the contract cancellation and penalty fee category, many cases involved agencies deducting meeting counts upon mid-term termination simply because a profile was sent, or calculating refunds by excluding already provided services from the total contracted count to minimize refund amounts.

A detailed investigation into 8 domestic and 9 international marriage brokerage companies with high volumes of grievances revealed that 2 domestic agencies maintained clauses that deducted meeting counts solely for profile distribution.

Four agencies made verbal agreements for unlimited matchmaking or additional sessions beyond the basic limit while omitting them from written contracts, or recorded restricted meeting counts instead.

Among all 17 surveyed companies (7 domestic and 1 international), 8 agencies included provisions for successful marriage fees, but lacked clear definitions of what constitutes a "successful marriage."

It was confirmed that some agencies regarded the date of the families' initial formal meeting or the finalization of a wedding date as a successful marriage rather than the actual wedding day, or failed to specify concrete criteria altogether.

Notably, 7 international brokerage agencies stipulated that if a consumer unilaterally abandons or calls off the marriage during the process, they must pay damages or penalty fees to the matchmaking partner.

However, they failed to specify the basis for the billed costs.

Out of the 15 surveyed companies operating websites, only 8 posted their pricing clearly so that anyone could check it easily.

The Korea Consumer Agency advised consumers to thoroughly verify meeting count deduction and refund standards, and to ensure that key details such as the agreed number of meetings are explicitly stated in the contract.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.