Be Cautious When Using Ritual Food Catering Service for Chuseok Holiday!

With a growing number of women workers and nuclear families, more and more people use specialized food catering services for ancestor rituals and the number of consumer complaints, especially during Chuseok holiday, is also on the rise as a result.  

During Chuseok holiday in 2006, 15 complaints were reported related to this service about “spoiled food,” “delay in food delivery or no delivery,” “wrong delivery,”…and so on.

<No. of Consumer Complaints by Year and by Cause of Complaints>

According to the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA)’s study of 58 food catering companies’ internet cybermalls operated around the nation, many of the catering firms were violating the regulations under the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce Transactions, etc. This means the level of protecting consumers’ rights and interests is not sufficient enough, and voluntary reform efforts of these companies are essential.

□ 30% of the Catering Firms Not Showing Their Mail Order Sales Registration Number  

Under the current Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce Transactions, etc., all the Internet-based food catering service providers have to register themselves as local government agencies and clearly show their registration numbers on their websites. However, out of the 58 companies surveyed, only 40 (69%) of them were showing their registration numbers, with the rest (18 companies) not following the rule.

□ Other Obligations including Indication of Business Operators’ Information Not Being Observed Properly  
The cyber mall operators, under the same act, should indicate the names of their companies and business representatives, company addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, business registration numbers, and terms & conditions for using their websites, if any, on their initial web pages. However, the KCA found that the observation rate of this rule among food catering firms was quite low. For example, indication of terms and conditions was observed only among 44.8% (26) of the surveyed companies, while 50% (29) and 75.9% (44) of the companies were showing their email addresses and names of representatives, respectively. Also, even if companies indicated the terms of trade for the use of their services, most of the indications seemed a mere formality.

□ No Information about Consumers’ Rights such as Safety Guarantee or Consumers’ Right to Contract Cancellation

When consumers purchase products on a pre-payment basis, the sellers, if consumers want, should guarantee consumers’ right to choose either “escrow” method or subscription of “insurance for consumer damage compensation.” However, currently there seems to be no such safety service for consumers in the nation.

Also, food catering firms should notify the fact that consumers’ right to cancel the contract can be restricted in the case of customized products such as food for ancestor rituals, if they receive consumers’ consent in written form in advance. However, out of the 58 food catering companies investigated this time, all 58 companies were not notifying the fact, which reveals possibility to cause consumer disputes related to consumers’ right to contract cancellation.

Based on its study result, the KCA is planning to urge the relevant industry to voluntarily come up with measures to prevent consumer damages, especially related to spoiled food and delivery problem, and to provide prompt compensation if once the damage occurs.

Meanwhile, the KCA also asked consumers, when using food catering service for Chuseok rituals, △ to use internet cybermalls which have posted sufficient and necessary information about the business operators and terms of trade, △ to use companies which have subscribed liability insurance, △ to check if the companies have “active” notice boards on their websites, △ to use the firms introduced and experienced by family members or friends, and △ to check the food as soon as they are delivered.

Sep 19, 2007 [Consumer Dispute Settlement Department I]