Five organizations related to delivery platforms, including the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, urged Coupang and Coupang Eats to "come up with a damage compensation plan" following the massive computer network outage that occurred on October 9.

The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, the National Federation of Merchants, the Korea Foodservice Industry Association, the Korea Franchise Association, and the National Cafe Owners Cooperative issued a joint statement on October 11, stating, "The network error incident went beyond mere inconvenience and directly threatened the survival rights of small business owners."

They stated, "We must not turn a blind eye to the damage and outcries of food service workers who rely on late-night delivery sales, and online merchants who incurred high promotional and advertising costs but failed to even secure proper sales opportunities."

They urged, "Coupang must transparently calculate the business losses of small business owners caused by this service outage and promptly prepare substantial and comprehensive damage compensation plans, including advertising fee refunds."

Delivery orders through Coupang Eats were halted due to a system error that occurred for more than two hours starting around midnight on October 9.

Incidents occurred where order acceptance was followed by a system error that prevented the cooking completion button from being clicked, or riders arrived at stores but could not make deliveries due to difficulties in checking customer addresses.

In response, Coupang Eats stated, "We once again apologize for the inconvenience caused by the temporary service error," adding, "We are immediately notifying and implementing a compensation plan that provides a 100% settlement payout equivalent to normal sales for orders canceled after acceptance during the outage period."

Coupang Eats explained, "Settlements will be processed automatically without a separate application procedure, and advertising costs for canceled orders during the outage period will not be charged to store owners."

(Photo: Yonhap News)