Disputes between platform operators and open-market sellers — over account suspensions, consumer returns and excessive advertising charges — have surged, prompting the Korea Fair Trade Mediation Authority to issue a damage alert targeting open-market vendors.

The authority urged sellers to keep documentation proving their products were sourced through legitimate retail channels and to maintain thorough records of returns and advertising activity, as account suspensions tied to suspected counterfeit sales, intellectual property violations and personal data breaches continue to mount.

Korea Fair Trade Mediation Authority [Yonhap]
Korea Fair Trade Mediation Authority [Yonhap]

The authority's Fair Trade Dispute Mediation Council said Sunday that disputes between platform operators and open-market sellers are rising rapidly amid a broader increase in online platform-related cases.

The authority received 442 dispute mediation requests in the first half of this year, up 121 percent from 200 cases in the same period last year, continuing a sharp upward trend over the past three years.

Online platform cases also accounted for a growing share of all fair trade dispute mediations, rising from about 18 percent last year to 28.3 percent in the first half of this year, an increase of roughly 10 percentage points. That shift reflects how significantly online platform disputes have grown within the broader category of fair trade cases arising from power imbalances between trading parties.

By sector, open-market shopping accounted for the largest share at 325 cases, or 73.5 percent of the total, followed by food delivery at 57 cases and secondhand trading at 14 cases.

Disputes fell into three main categories. The first involved platform operators suspending sales or freezing accounts after suspecting or receiving reports of counterfeit sales, intellectual property violations or personal data breaches, then demanding that sellers provide explanations. In some cases, linked accounts were suspended as well.

A second category involved disputes over liability during consumer returns. Representative cases included instances where a platform refunded a buyer even though the returned product never reached the seller, or where a refund was issued on grounds of a product defect that the seller maintained did not exist.

A third category involved advertising disputes: sellers ran campaigns under agreements that included advertising subsidies, only to find the subsidies were never paid, or were billed for ads that continued running beyond the contracted period.

The authority advised open-market sellers to keep documentation at all times verifying that their products are genuine and sourced through legitimate retail channels, and to check in advance that their listings do not infringe intellectual property rights or personal data regulations.

In addition, sellers should ensure that consumer personal data is not shared with third parties without consent, accurately log return shipment information in their systems, and regularly monitor the status and duration of their advertising campaigns, the authority said.

Sellers who have suffered losses from account suspensions, sales stoppages or excessive advertising charges can apply for relief through the authority's online dispute mediation system or its dispute mediation call center.

The authority said it plans to deepen its expertise, expand outreach-based mediation services and regularly distribute model dispute resolution cases to help prevent future conflicts.

To respond more quickly to the growing caseload, the authority said it will continue discussions with relevant agencies on increasing staff, while also working to develop unified operational and improvement measures for the Fair Trade Dispute Mediation Act currently before the National Assembly.


y2k@heraldcorp.com