Wemakeprice: "Possible Without Qoo10 Funding... Will Accelerate Refund Process"

Ryu Hwa-hyun CEO "Cannot Communicate with Koo Young-bae, Qoo10 CEO"
"600-700 Refunds Possible by 6 PM"

Ryu Hwa-hyun, co-CEO of WEMAKEPRICE, stated on the 25th that "consumer refunds are possible without Qoo10 funds."

Ryu said at the company’s headquarters in Samseong-dong, Seoul, in the afternoon, "Consumer refunds are being processed with WEMAKEPRICE funds, but fund management is handled by Qoo10," adding, "Refunds related to travel are at a manageable scale."

Ryu Hwa-hyun, CEO of Wemakeprice, is attending to customers seeking refunds due to the settlement delay at the Wemakeprice headquarters in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, on the 25th. (Photo by Lee Seung-jin)

He continued, "Qoo10 is taking measures to secure funds for the entire group, and there is also a method of obtaining loans through collateral."

When asked if he had contacted Koo Young-bae, CEO of Qoo10, he replied, "I have not been able to speak with him yet." Ryu explained, "It has been clarified that if a provisional seizure occurs, consumer refunds will not be possible," and said, "We will speed up consumer refunds."

On the same day, the Fair Trade Commission summoned Ryu to resolve the situation. However, victims blocked Ryu from leaving, and he ultimately could not appear before the commission. The victims raised their voices, saying, "We will not move a step until our money is returned."

Hundreds of victims demanding refunds gathered at WEMAKEPRICE headquarters from the previous evening. WEMAKEPRICE is manually collecting the payer’s name and contact information, reservation number, product name, refund request quantity, account holder’s name, and account number, and is refunding sequentially. As hundreds of people crowded and manually filled out forms in the morning, increasing the risk of accidents, WEMAKEPRICE began guiding reception via QR code from 10:30 a.m.

At the scene, as refunds did not proceed quickly, victims’ protests intensified. A victim who submitted a manual refund request at 8:30 a.m. only received the refund close to 3 p.m. Some victims who had applied for refunds online the previous day still had not received refunds and came to the site to protest. As of 4 p.m. that day, about 300 victims were still waiting at the site for refunds.

Regarding refunds, a WEMAKEPRICE official said, "We have created a list of about 1,000 victims who applied on-site today, and as of 3 p.m., refunds have been processed for about 250 people," adding, "Refund operations started to gain speed after 12 p.m., and we expect to refund 600 to 700 people by 6 p.m."

He further explained, "Fourteen people have been assigned to verify refund customers," and "Since transfers must be made directly to customers, and it was decided to unify certificates, one employee is handling the transfer work."

Meanwhile, the Fair Trade Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service conducted a joint on-site inspection and investigation of WEMAKEPRICE and TMON this afternoon to check for violations of the Electronic Commerce Act, including obligations to refund consumers and fulfill service supply contracts. They plan to accurately investigate the status of unsettled sales proceeds for sellers and urge WEMAKEPRICE and TMON to prepare normalization plans with a responsible attitude.