Fair Trade Commission, Korea Consumer Agency Expand 2025 Budget for TMON, Wemakeprice Damage Relief

2024.09.19. The Fair Economy — The Korea Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Consumer Agency said on the 19th that they have increased the budget for consumer damage relief and dispute mediation by 450 million won to address the delayed settlement of sales proceeds at TMON and Wemakeprice, incorporating the increase into the 2025 government budget proposal.

Recently, to remedy consumer damage caused by the delayed settlement of sales proceeds at TMON and Wemakeprice, a total of 22,005 consumers, including 9,028 victims in the travel, accommodation, and aviation sectors and 12,977 victims in the gift certificate sector, have applied for collective dispute mediation. This is the largest scale in the history of the Korea Consumer Agency, requiring prompt processing.

The Korea Consumer Agency plans to prepare dispute mediation proposals for applications in the travel, accommodation, and aviation sectors by December, and to process dispute mediation in the gift certificate sector as quickly as possible. Once the budget is finalized, it is expected that recruiting dedicated personnel for dispute mediation and upgrading the computer system will help in the smooth execution of large-scale dispute mediation.

If a business operator refuses a collective dispute mediation decision, the agency plans to do its best to provide consumer damage relief by supporting litigation, including hiring lawyers and paying retainer fees. This is because it is difficult for consumers to conduct litigation directly due to time and economic burdens, so the Korea Consumer Agency will support them to seek final damage relief.

Han Gi-jeong, chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, stated, "Regarding the TMON and Wemakeprice incident, which caused large-scale damage, we will closely cooperate with the National Assembly to ensure an effective budget allocation for consumer damage relief." Yoon Su-hyeon, head of the Korea Consumer Agency, also emphasized, "We will mobilize all the agency's resources to support consumers."