Delivery App Win-Win Talks End Empty-Handed... "Additional Meeting Soon"

On the 28th, delivery workers affiliated with the Rider Union held a press conference in front of the Baedal Minjok Southern Center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, urging the introduction of a safety delivery fee for Baedal Minjok riders. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

The 7th meeting of the 'Delivery Platform and Merchant Win-Win Council,' aimed at establishing win-win measures such as reducing delivery app commission rates, ended without agreement.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and other related government agencies on the 14th, the Delivery Platform and Merchant Win-Win Council held its 7th meeting in the afternoon at the Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency's main conference room.

During the meeting, focused discussions were held on the four main demands previously raised by the merchants participating on the delivery platforms.

The demands included ▲measures to alleviate the burden on merchants such as commission fees ▲indicating the merchant's burden items (commission and delivery fees) on consumer receipts ▲cessation of the most-favored-nation clause demands ▲sharing of delivery drivers' location information.

The delivery platforms reviewed the merchants' demands based on the results of the previous meeting and presented supplemented positions from each company, but the meeting ended with only confirmation of differences on key issues.

The council has been discussing reform plans such as differentiating delivery app commission rates according to sales scale. With Baedal Minjok, the number one delivery service in the industry, submitting additional win-win proposals at the previous meeting, there was keen interest in whether a final agreement would be reached at this meeting. However, some companies expressed opposition to the win-win proposals, and merchants' positions also diverged, resulting in no agreement being reached.

The public interest commissioners requested both sides to reconsider the opposing positions and present more advanced proposals. The government stated, "We plan to hold additional meetings soon to conclude the discussions."