Fair Trade Commission Issues Corrective Orders and Imposes Fines of 33 Million KRW on Six Dating App Operators for Violations of the Electronic Commerce Act Including False, Exaggerated, and Deceptive Advertising
[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 27th that it has decided to impose corrective orders and a total fine of 33 million KRW on six dating app operators for violations of the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, Techlabs, Kolondi, Eum Socious, Cupidist, and Mozet lured consumers with advertising on application screens or in-app product advertisements that lacked objective evidence or used exaggerated or deceptive expressions.
Techlabs used expressions without objective evidence on the app introduction screens in the app markets for the 'Amanda' and 'Neorangnarang' apps such as "The premium matchmaking app most used by large corporations and professionals," "10,000 couples formed daily! One couple matched every 6 seconds," and "The largest number of members in Korea! No.1 exclusive matchmaking app."
Additionally, the individuals appearing in the advertisements for Amanda and Neorangnarang apps were advertising models, not actual members, but this fact was not disclosed, and false identity information was used in the advertisements.
Kolondi sold a "Solo Escape Package" on its app 'Simkung' and used expressions such as "91% user satisfaction" and "92% repurchase intention" without objective evidence in its advertising. The advertisements used false identity information and user reviews without disclosing that the people appearing were not actual members.
Eum Socious used expressions such as "The matchmaking app with the largest number of members in Korea" and "2 million singles verified with certainty" on the app introduction screen in the app market. Similarly, Eum used false identity information in advertisements without disclosing that the individuals appearing were advertising models, not actual members.
Mozet displayed fictitious numbers without objective evidence as the "number of married couples" within the app 'Jeongoeui Date' and aggregated the number of men and women who had logged in within the last three hours as the "opposite sex currently online."
The operators’ acts of displaying and advertising important information for app selection such as actual registered member information and numbers, couple matching numbers, product satisfaction, and user reviews without objective evidence or in an exaggerated or deceptive manner when introducing apps and selling products are acts that may mislead consumers about app information and thus violate Article 21, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 1 of the Electronic Commerce Act.
A Fair Trade Commission official stated, "By detecting and sanctioning law violations targeting influential operators in the social dating service market, we aim to raise awareness across the social dating industry and improve compliance rates, thereby contributing to the prevention of consumer harm." The official added, "The Fair Trade Commission will continue to monitor violations of the Electronic Commerce Act in digital economy sectors such as the social dating service market to protect consumer rights."
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