The Trend of 'Resell' Buying Scarce Products for Resale
Coining of the New Term 'Sneakertech' Combining 'Sneakers + Investment'
Correction of Terms Unfavorable to Members
[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Five domestic resell online platform operators?Cream, Soldout, Ripple, Outofstock, and Frog?have voluntarily corrected unfair contract terms, including unjust business exemption clauses and ambiguous criteria for fee reductions.
On the 28th, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it reviewed the service terms of the five resell operators and had them voluntarily correct five types of unfair contract terms.
The resell market is rapidly growing as collecting and reselling limited-edition products has become a hobby and investment method, especially among the MZ generation. In particular, sneakers have attracted significant attention due to their low entry barriers and high utility relative to price, leading to the creation of the new term 'Sneakertech' (Sneakers + Investment).
Accordingly, the Fair Trade Commission reviewed the service terms of the five specialized domestic resell online platform operators. During this process, the operators voluntarily corrected unfair contract terms.
Until now, Cream, Soldout, Ripple, Outofstock, and Frog stipulated that in case of disputes between purchasing and selling members during transactions, all responsibility would be borne by the members, and the company would be exempt from damages incurred by members.
Resell platforms have the characteristic that once a transaction is concluded, the selling member sends the product to an inspection center, and only products that pass the operator’s inspection are delivered to the purchasing member. Therefore, the operator can check the authenticity of the information about the product registered by the selling member and key dispute factors such as defects or counterfeit status during the inspection process. If disputes between members or causes of member damages could have been prevented by the operator’s platform management or product inspection process, clauses exempting the operator from responsibility are unfairly disadvantageous to customers and thus unfair.
Therefore, in cases where disputes arise between purchasing and selling members or damages occur to members during transactions, if the operator is at fault, they must bear responsibility. This clause was corrected accordingly.
Clauses limiting the scope of the operator’s liability for damages without substantial reason were also corrected. If the operator is at fault for customer damages, they must bear responsibility.
Additionally, the operator’s intentional or gross negligence liability in intellectual property disputes was clarified, and if the operator is at fault for service disruptions, they must bear responsibility.
A Fair Trade Commission official stated, "By correcting unfair clauses, we have strengthened the operator’s responsibility for customer damages and clarified the criteria for fee reductions. As the resell market rapidly grows with limited-edition product collecting and reselling becoming hobbies and investment methods mainly among the MZ generation, this will protect online platform users’ rights and prevent disputes caused by unfair contract terms in advance, providing an opportunity for the market to grow healthily."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
