2024.07.26. The Fair Economy — Tmon and Wemakeprice have recently failed to settle sales payments, causing consumers to suffer damages in using products or receiving refunds. In this situation, the government has stepped up activities to prevent consumer damage and protect sellers, alongside the industry's self-rescue efforts.
The government plans to continue monitoring the situation to prevent the unpaid settlement issue at Tmon and Wemakeprice from spreading further, and will actively prepare additional measures as needed.
Kim Beom-seok, First Vice Minister of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, held an emergency inter-agency inspection meeting on the morning of the 25th at the Government Complex Seoul regarding the unpaid settlement issue at Tmon and Wemakeprice, checking on the harm suffered by consumers and sellers and discussing response measures.
At the meeting, the Financial Services Commission and the FINANCIAL SUPERVISORY SERVICE shared monitoring results on scheduled, completed, and delayed settlements, and inspected and discussed measures that relevant ministries could take.
On the same day, the Fair Trade Commissio and the FINANCIAL SUPERVISORY SERVICE conducted a joint on-site inspection and investigation of Wemakeprice and Tmon to check for violations of the Electronic Commerce Act, such as obligations to refund payments to consumers and fulfill service supply contracts. They also accurately investigated the status of unsettled sales payments to sellers and urged Wemakeprice and Tmon to prepare normalization plans with a responsible attitude.
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism decided to urge the travel industry to actively fulfill contract obligations, as consumer damage from purchased travel products is most concerning.
The Financial Services Commission and the Financial Supervisory Service will focus on strengthening the management system for settlement funds to protect sellers, including encouraging financial companies such as banks to sign escrow agreements so that funds brought in for settlement can only be used for settlement purposes.
The Korea Consumer Agency has formed a dedicated response team to collectively remedy the damage of many consumers caused by the delayed settlement to sellers on Tmon and Wemakeprice, and has begun procedures to apply for collective dispute mediation to the Consumer Dispute Mediation Committee.
To apply for collective dispute mediation, the number of consumers who have suffered damage of the same or similar type due to goods, etc., must be at least 50, and the key issues of the case must be common in fact or in law.
According to the Korea Consumer Agency, the number of consultations related to Tmon and Wemakeprice received by the 1372 Consumer Counseling Center from July 22 to 25 reached 4,137. In particular, consultations from consumers who purchased travel-related products during the summer vacation season were the most frequent, making swift relief necessary.
Accordingly, the Korea Consumer Agency announced that it will prioritize applying for collective dispute mediation for cases such as ▲consumers who purchased travel, accommodation, or airline tickets from Tmon and Wemakeprice and requested cancellation of the contract but were refused a refund, and ▲consumers who requested a refund due to the seller's non-performance of the contract but were refused.
Consumers can apply to participate in the collective dispute mediation from August 1 to 9 through the Korea Consumer Agency website (www.kca.go.kr).
Meanwhile, for cases where the contracted items are not travel, accommodation, or airline tickets, and for cases other than requests for refunds related to the delayed settlement, the number of sellers and issues vary, so consumer counseling and damage relief procedures will be conducted through the 1372 Consumer Counseling Center (dial 1372 without area code).
Attention is focused on this collective dispute mediation because it names as parties not only the sellers who are parties to the contracts but also the online platform operators (Tmon and Wemakeprice) that provided brokerage services between consumers and sellers, aiming to remedy large-scale consumer harm.
The Korea Consumer Agency urged consumers wishing to apply for collective dispute mediation to refer to the recruitment guidelines and participate in the mediation application within the application period.
Regarding the Tmon and Wemakeprice situation, the Personal Information Protection Commission communicated with the Chief Privacy Officer (CPO) of Qoo10 Technology LLC, which has been entrusted with managing personal information from these companies, and proactively checked the status of personal information processing.
According to the PPC, Tmon and Wemakeprice are participants in the "Public-Private Cooperation Self-Regulation Agreement for the Online Shopping Sector" with regard to the personal data they handle. As a result of the PPC's inspection, no problems related to personal data handling have been identified from the time the settlement and refund issues arose up to now.
The PPC said it plans to actively guide and supervise the personal data handling practices of the companies involved and continuously monitor them, doing its utmost so that the public does not feel anxious.
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