2024.07.06. The Fair Economy — Eduwill, an online education platform, has been sanctioned for advertising that "9 out of 10 people passed within 3 months" without objective or reasonable grounds. It was also found that while selling online courses for jobs at public corporations and other employers, the company ran discount events after the advertised deadline, yet advertised as if discount vouchers were available only until that deadline.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced on the 4th that it had decided to issue a corrective order and impose a fine of 5 million won (about $3,600) on Eduwill over this conduct.
In February 2022, Eduwill ran a 100,000-won discount promotion on online course products such as its "Public Enterprise Refund Class" through its own cyber mall. During this period, it advertised that discount coupons would be available only until March 2, 2022. However, the company repeatedly advertised price discounts for the same products with identical terms until March 7 and March 11, 2022, after that deadline had passed.
The FTC pointed out that consumers who saw the discount deadline advertisement could have been misled into believing they would no longer be able to take courses at similarly low prices after the promotion ended.
Additionally, from March 15 to April 26, 2022, Eduwill advertised "9 out of 10 pass within three months" while selling online course products related to public enterprise jobs on its cyber mall. The FTC explained that consumers who saw the short-term pass advertisement could have been misled into thinking that 90 percent of test-takers who took Eduwill's online job courses passed within a short period of three months.
In particular, the short-term pass advertisement was based on an internal survey of successful students in which only 10 respondents participated, making it difficult to consider the results representative. The survey asked about "the time taken from studying Eduwill's job courses to passing," without considering the actual time required to prepare for a job, yet the company definitively advertised "passing within three months."
The FTC stated, "This action is significant because it identified unfair advertising by an online course operator that lured consumers with false or exaggerated claims such as 'passing within three months,' allowing consumers to choose operators based on objective information. The FTC plans to continue monitoring unfair advertising by online course operators and respond strictly when violations are detected."
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