Seoul: The antitrust regulator has mandated two local e-commerce platforms, TMON and WeMakePrice, to address their failure in processing consumer refunds and repayments amidst a liquidity crisis last year. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has issued correction orders against these companies for violating the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce.
According to Yonhap News Agency, TMON failed to return approximately 67.5 billion won (US$48.3 million) to its customers within the legally required three business days, despite refund requests, from December 2023 to July 2024. Similarly, WeMakePrice is accused of failing to process refund requests totaling 2.3 billion won within the stipulated three business days between March and July last year.
The two platforms were at the center of a significant payment delay scandal last year, triggered by liquidity issues of their parent company, Qoo10, based in Singapore. As a result, both companies are currently involved in court-led rehabilitation processes after filing for court receivership last year.
In addition to the correction orders, the FTC has also directed the companies to submit a rehabilitation plan that includes their unpaid refunds to the court. As of March, about 56,000 vendors and 470,000 customers had yet to receive payments of 1.3 trillion won and 130 billion won, respectively, from TMON and WeMakePrice, according to the platforms' legal administrator.