Citizen Group: "Delivery App Reviews Fuel Black Consumer Growth... Store Owners Must Be Protected"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Jung-yoon] There are concerns that the review and rating systems of food delivery applications (apps) such as Coupang Eats, Coupang's food delivery service, are fostering black consumers (malicious consumers), and calls have been made for delivery app operators to guarantee the rights of store owners to defend themselves.

On the 22nd, the People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy's Livelihood Hope Headquarters, the National Network for Realizing Economic Democracy, and the National Franchisee Council held a press conference in front of Coupang's headquarters in Songpa-gu, Seoul, urging, "Delivery app operators must protect store owners from black consumers who cause significant damage to sales through false or malicious reviews and 'rating terrorism.'"

They added, "The absolute standard for evaluating stores on delivery apps is reviews and ratings, but in reality, it is difficult for store owners to actively respond to black consumers who abuse these systems," and "Store owners often have to comply with unreasonable refund demands and excessive service requests, creating a vicious cycle where black consumers treat delivery apps as their playground."

They demanded measures to strengthen store owners' rights to respond, including ▲deletion or hiding of malicious reviews ▲adding a comment function for store owners on reviews ▲separating evaluations of delivery and food quality ▲establishing objective store evaluation criteria ▲signing win-win agreements with delivery platforms ▲and revising refund policies.

In response, Coupang Eats plans to implement recurrence prevention measures, including establishing a dedicated organization to protect store owners. First, they will introduce a feature allowing store owners to directly comment on malicious reviews to provide explanations and improve the reporting process to block the exposure of malicious reviews. They will also assign dedicated counselors to listen to store owners' difficulties and enhance counselor training and education to improve the consultation process.