Online Shopping Auto-Payment Renewal Without Consumer Consent 'Halted'

Recent Growth in Online Shopping Market Increases Financial Damage
Assemblyman Kim Yong-pan Proposes Amendment to Electronic Commerce Act
Prohibition of Acts Hindering Membership Withdrawal Included

A bill prohibiting acts that induce automatic payments during online shopping or obstruct membership withdrawal is being promoted.

On the 23rd, Kim Yong-pan, a member of the People Power Party, announced that he has introduced the "Amendment to the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, etc." containing such provisions.

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The amendment requires businesses conducting electronic commerce or telemarketing businesses to prevent inducing consumers to make automatic payments or allowing automatic payments to be renewed without consent. Acts that make the withdrawal process complicated and difficult even if a member wants to withdraw are also prohibited.

As the online shopping market has grown due to COVID-19, cases of financial damage caused by automatic payments have also been increasing. According to Kim’s office, the transaction amount of online shopping in the past five years has nearly doubled from 113 trillion won in 2018 to 210 trillion won last year. Along with this, according to the consultation status submitted by the Korea Consumer Agency to Kim’s office over the past five years, 188 complaints related to manipulating the user interface to induce consumer decision-making in favor of businesses were recorded. Among these, complaints related to automatic payments were the highest at 95 cases, followed by obstruction of cancellation (62 cases), and insufficient total price display (16 cases). The problem is that although such deceptive acts against consumers have increased, there are no provisions in current law to prohibit them.

In response, Representative Kim said, "The deceptive tactics of electronic commerce sellers are becoming more sophisticated every year, causing significant harm to consumers," and added, "I hope this amendment will effectively regulate unfair trade practices by businesses or telemarketers and further protect consumers' rights from deceptive tactics."