Collecting Opinions on Payment Settlement Practices and System Improvements
for 8 Major Open Market Operators
As consumer payment cancellations related to Tmon and Wemakeprice, payment gateway (PG) companies for card companies, begin in earnest, refunds are expected to be processed sequentially starting as early as the 1st. On this day, a dedicated counter for victims of the delayed settlement of sales proceeds from Wemakeprice and Tmon has been set up at the Financial Support Center of the Financial Supervisory Service in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Jo Yongjun jun21@
As the aftermath of the Timef incident spreads to other affiliates such as Interpark Commerce and AK Mall, the government is conducting an urgent inspection of payment settlement practices targeting similar industries and has begun improving related systems.
On the 1st, the Fair Trade Commission held a meeting with eight major open market platform operators to inspect the payment settlement practices for vendors and gather opinions on system improvement measures. Attendees included Naver, Kakao, Coupang, Gmarket·Auction, 11st, Interpark, Musinsa, and Lotte Shopping.
The Fair Trade Commission identified the cause of the incident as the exploitation of long settlement cycles to delay or withhold payments and manage them opaquely, and decided to initiate system improvements such as shortening the settlement cycle going forward.
The Electronic Commerce Act under the jurisdiction of the Fair Trade Commission distinguishes between communication sales operators and communication sales intermediaries, assigning transaction responsibility only to the communication sales operators. The current law does not include guidelines regulating payment management or shortening settlement cycles for open markets, which are communication sales intermediaries.
The Fair Trade Commission explained, "We are reviewing system improvement measures to prevent recurrence of similar issues. To this end, we held this meeting to understand the payment settlement practices, including settlement cycles and payment management methods for each open market operator, and to collect industry opinions related to system improvements."
Nam Dong-il, Secretary General of the Fair Trade Commission, stated, "Given the significant damage to vendors and consumers related to the Tmon and Wemakeprice incident and the high public concern, we request open markets to take special measures to ensure smooth payment of sales proceeds and proper management."
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