"Paid for a One-Year Subscription, Then No Contact"... Consumer Complaints About OTT Services Surge

Consumer Counseling for OTT Services Up 640.6% from Previous Month
205 Cases Reported... Providers Induce Cash Payments, Then Cut Off Contact
Inquiries Also Rise for Summer Items Like Electric Fans and Air Conditioners

#Person A paid 16,000 won on April 30 to purchase a four-month subscription to an online video service (OTT). However, two months later, on the 12th of last month, the service provider claimed there was a problem with the service and said that, in order to restore it, the expiration period needed to be set in one-year units, demanding payment for a one-year subscription. The consumer transferred 40,000 won as requested by the provider. Afterward, the provider suspended the service and became unreachable.

The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 15th that, last month, consumer counseling related to OTT services increased by 7.4 times compared to the same month last year due to the suspension of OTT account-sharing services and the inability to contact providers. Last month, there were a total of 51,908 consumer counseling cases, up 2.0% from the previous month and 23.6% from the same month last year.

The category with the highest year-on-year increase in consumer counseling was OTT services (640.6%). For OTT services, many consumers sought counseling after providers, citing account-sharing management stability, induced them to extend to a one-year subscription and pay in cash, only to then suspend the service or become unreachable.

Other categories with high increases included credit cards (143.6%) and internet information services (122.8%). Most credit card-related counseling involved smishing cases where cards that had not been requested for issuance were reported as being shipped. For internet information services, many counseling cases stemmed from specific social networking service (SNS) accounts being unilaterally suspended or blocked.

Compared to the previous month, the largest increases in consumer counseling were seen in 'electric fans' (204.5%) and 'air conditioners' (143.4%), with summer heat-related items topping the list. For electric fans, many consumers sought counseling after being unable to reach customer service centers regarding product malfunctions. For air conditioners, most counseling cases involved complaints about poor cooling performance or excessive repair charges for installation defects.

Last month, the most frequent subjects of consumer counseling were 'air passenger transport services' (1,124 cases), 'fitness centers' (1,077 cases), and 'mobile phone services' (970 cases). There were many counseling cases related to airline ticket cancellations during the summer vacation season, the closure of large fitness centers, and the SKT USIM hacking incident.