KT Sanctioned by Fair Trade Commission for Not Disclosing Galaxy S25 Pre-Order Stock Limit

KT is set to face sanctions from the Fair Trade Commission for misleading consumers into believing that anyone who pre-ordered the Galaxy S25 series would be able to purchase the product, despite the limited quantity available for pre-order.

On January 25, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it would issue a corrective order and impose a fine of 5 million won on KT for violating the Electronic Commerce Act.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, from January 24 to February 3 last year, KT accepted pre-orders for Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S25 series on the KT Cybermall event page. Despite the limited stock, KT informed customers that "unless otherwise indicated, you can receive benefits from all first-come, first-served events," and then canceled 7,127 pre-orders that had been received.

At that time, KT displayed banners on "Genie TV" and the shopping guide channel "Allright Studio," giving the impression that anyone who made a reservation could purchase the product, even though only 400 units were available for reservation.

The Fair Trade Commission determined that such actions constituted providing false or exaggerated information, or using deceptive methods to attract consumers, in violation of Article 21, Paragraph 1 of the Electronic Commerce Act.

The Fair Trade Commission stated, "This measure is expected to ensure compliance with the Electronic Commerce Act in the relevant market and help prevent consumer harm by addressing the use of false or deceptive methods by telecommunications companies to attract consumers."