ST Unitas, famous for 'Gongdangi,' the No.1 online lecture platform for civil service exams, was sanctioned by the Fair Trade Commission for deceptive advertising that misled examinees.
On the 3rd, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it imposed a fine of 109 million KRW on ST Unitas (hereafter Gongdangi) for violating the Act on Labeling and Advertising (deceptive advertising). A corrective order, including the publication of the sanction, was also imposed.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, Gongdangi falsely advertised on its website from June to August 2021 that 7 to 8 out of 10 successful candidates for the 2020 civil service exams in the fields of computer science, social welfare, and nursing were their students.
The actual pass rate was between 49% and 66%, and the Commission judged that the advertisement claiming a pass rate of 70% to 80% was false and exaggerated.
When the Fair Trade Commission began its investigation, Gongdangi revised the advertisement to state that the statistics were limited to 1 to 5 regions only. However, this 'limitation' was displayed in gray color at only 0.2% of the entire screen size, making it hard to see and thus misleading consumers, according to the investigation.
Gongdangi also advertised phrases such as 'No.1 computer science exam prep book,' 'No.1 in sales,' 'No.1 in community mentions,' and 'No.1 in number of students,' while using the same method to obscure the information supporting these claims.
Sales and number of students were based on internal sales data, and exam prep book sales were based only on specific bookstores. The Fair Trade Commission judged that examinees with ordinary attention could be misled into believing these rankings applied overall.
A Fair Trade Commission official stated, "We determined that these false, exaggerated, and deceptive advertisements could influence consumers' rational purchasing decisions and undermine fair trade order in the civil service academy market."
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