The Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 19th that they have increased the budget for responding to the T-Mef (Timon·Wemakeprice) incident by 450 million won and reflected it in next year's government budget proposal.
To remedy consumer damages caused by delayed settlement of sales proceeds by T-Mef, a total of 22,005 consumers applied for collective dispute mediation, including 9,028 victims in the travel, accommodation, and aviation sectors, and 12,977 victims in the gift certificate sector. This is the largest scale in the history of the Consumer Agency's collective dispute mediation.
The Consumer Agency plans to prepare dispute mediation proposals for the travel, accommodation, and aviation sectors by December and to handle the gift certificate sector disputes as quickly as possible. The funds secured through the budget confirmation will be used to reinforce dedicated personnel for dispute mediation and to overhaul the IT system.
The Fair Trade Commission and the Consumer Agency stated that if businesses refuse the collective dispute mediation decision, they will support consumers in litigation by hiring lawyers and paying legal fees, doing their utmost to remedy consumer damages.
Han Ki-jung, Chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, said, "Regarding the T-Mef incident, which caused large-scale damages, we will closely cooperate with the National Assembly in the future to ensure effective budget allocation for consumer damage relief."
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