After the Tmap incident last year, Tmon and Wemakeprice, which refused or delayed consumer refund requests, will be subject to sanctions by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC).
On May 7, the KFTC announced that it would impose corrective orders on Tmon and Wemakeprice for violations of the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce (hereinafter referred to as the Electronic Commerce Act).
According to the KFTC, from December 2023 to July last year, Tmon failed to refund approximately 67.5 billion KRW in payments for goods sold on its online mall within three business days, even though consumers had withdrawn their purchases (requested refunds).
The Electronic Commerce Act requires sellers to process refunds within three business days upon receiving a refund request.
Wemakeprice also failed to refund approximately 2.3 billion KRW in payments for goods sold on its online mall within three business days, even though consumers had withdrawn their purchases, between March and July last year.
The KFTC determined that these actions constitute violations of the Electronic Commerce Act, which stipulates sellers' obligations regarding withdrawal of purchase in online transactions, and decided to impose sanctions.
Both companies are currently undergoing court-led rehabilitation procedures due to the large-scale unpaid settlement incident that occurred last year. Therefore, in addition to the usual order to prevent recurrence, the KFTC's corrective order includes a public announcement of the corrective action and a directive to include the unpaid refund amounts in the rehabilitation plan to be submitted to the court.
The KFTC stated, "We will continue to closely monitor violations of the Electronic Commerce Act by online platform operators and actively respond to protect consumers."
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