The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME) has called for the immediate suspension of mobile financial platform Toss's "attendance check search mission," which encourages users to search for Naver stores and places to attract traffic, while urging strict investigation by law enforcement authorities.

In an official statement, the KFME argued, "Toss has mobilized millions of users daily using small cash points of around 5 won per transaction as bait, inducing them to mechanically search and look up product tags on Naver Stores or store information on Naver Places." They added, "As a result, small business owners who have maintained top-tier exposure through superior products and services and genuine customer reviews have been pushed down past the 5th or 6th ranks overnight, suffering massive blows."

The coalition continued, "For vulnerable small business owners lacking financial resources and alternative channels, Naver Smart Store and Place are effectively their only windows to customers." They criticized, "Toss engaged in predatory marketing that filled its own pockets and used the livelihoods of neighborhood merchants as a stepping stone for its own growth."

Furthermore, they demanded that law enforcement authorities conduct a strict investigation into Toss, and urged the government and the National Assembly to establish legislation to prevent recurrence and protective regulations to ensure small business owners do not suffer damages.

"Any predatory marketing that disrupts the business foundations built with the blood and sweat of small business owners cannot be packaged as innovation or win-win growth," the KFME emphasized. "Toss should acknowledge its responsibility for market distortion even now and apologize to the 7.9 million small business owners."

(Photo: Yonhap News)