Server Failures Occurred on June 6 and 9
No Compensation System Despite Self-Employed Protests
Clear Accountability Needed... Related Discussions Required
During the recent holiday period, South Korea's leading delivery applications such as Baedal Minjok (Baemin) and Yogiyo experienced consecutive server failures, causing orders to be paralyzed for a while.
Store owners demanded compensation, claiming serious disruptions to their business due to the server outages, but both companies stated they have no separate compensation plans. Experts advised that it is difficult to clearly identify liability for damages caused by delivery app server failures, creating a 'blind spot' in compensation regulations, and called for related discussions.
According to a report compiled by Asia Economy on the 10th, Baemin's rider-exclusive app, 'Baemin Connect,' experienced a GPS (Global Positioning System) failure nationwide, including the Seoul metropolitan area, for about an hour from 6:30 PM to 7:30 PM on the 6th. Baemin Connect is a dedicated app used by riders who perform Baemin's own delivery services such as single-house deliveries and budget deliveries. When a customer places an order through the Baemin app, nearby riders receive an 'order call' via the Baemin Connect app, and once a rider accepts the call, the dispatch is completed.
On that day, due to the Baemin Connect app malfunction, most riders either did not receive order calls or received inaccurate calls. Kim Jeong-hoon, head of the Baemin division of the Delivery Platform Union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, said, "Normally, calls should come from within a 2 km radius, but there were issues such as calls from Mapo coming in while the rider was in Jongno." He added, "From the rider's perspective, it is difficult to pick up orders from places 5 km away. Many riders reportedly did not accept calls and left work early."
Jung (37), who works part-time as a delivery rider in Songpa-gu, Seoul, also said, "I was unable to receive dispatch calls for a while due to the app failure," adding, "I ended up losing the evening shift that day and went home."
Another delivery app, Yogiyo, experienced a server outage for about 20 minutes starting at 6:40 PM on the 9th. Immediately after the incident, Yogiyo apologized on its official website, stating, "A temporary failure occurred in the delivery app," and promised to "identify the cause promptly and improve the failure process."
Store owners demanded compensation from the delivery apps, citing serious disruptions to their business. The 'National Association of Fair Platform Store Owners,' which consists of about 200 self-employed individuals, is reportedly collecting damage cases caused by the server failures that occurred over the past weekend.
Lee (36), who runs a pasta specialty restaurant in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, said, "Weekend evenings are truly the 'peak hours,' but orders were so few that I checked and found that the delivery app was malfunctioning. Yet, the company did not provide any notice," adding, "Losing the golden hours caused serious disruptions to my business."
On the 9th, after a temporary distance restriction was imposed and then lifted due to a server outage of Baemin Connect, the delivery riders' exclusive app of Baedal Minjok [Photo by self-employed person Mr. Lee]
Nevertheless, Baemin, Yogiyo, and other delivery app companies stated that they have no separate compensation plans related to this incident. A Baemin representative said, "It is true that there were dispatch delays mainly in the Seoul and Gyeonggi metropolitan areas," but added, "There are no separate compensation plans or regulations." A Yogiyo representative also responded, "Server downtime is a very rare event, akin to a natural disaster. The company also suffered losses from this incident, so there is no separate compensation for store owners."
Experts emphasized that it is difficult to clearly assign responsibility for problems caused by delivery app server failures and that sufficient discussions should take place until a separate compensation system is established.
Professor Choi Nan-seolheon of Yonsei University Law School explained, "The first step is to clearly identify whether the issue was caused by the server or the telecommunications company. From the delivery app's perspective, it is realistically difficult to create a separate compensation system unless liability is clearly established." He added, "If the damage is very large, there may be a moral responsibility, but otherwise, compensation cannot be forced on the delivery apps." He further advised, "As problems caused by delivery app failures repeat and damage cases become known, discussions to clarify liability should be activated."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
