Consumer damage complaints related to e-commerce filed to the Korea Consumer Agency (President: Kim Young-seen, www.kca.go.kr) stood at 4,076 cases (+7.3% y-y from 3,799 cases last year), taking up 17.4% of overall consumer damage cases (23,374 cases).

The Korea Consumer Agency conducted an analysis on consumer damage cases related to e-commerce reported to the KCA last year and found that the most claims (37.9% or 1,544 cases) were made for ‘Garments, textile goods, & personal items’, followed by ‘ICT Services (15.7% or 641 cases) and ‘ICT Equipments (9.3%, 379 cases)’.

By damage type, ‘Contract-related damages’ such as cooling-off were ranked as the first, followed by ‘Quality and After-sale service’ (31.5%, 1,286 cases), and ‘ Unfair practice and Contract terms’. By amount of damage, amount below KRW100,000 (USD93 approx.) stood at 46.0% with the average amount of damage at W361,338 (USD334 approx.).

Meanwhile, more males (52.7%, 2,147 persons) were victimized by e-commerce consumer damages compared to female group (47.3%, 1,929 persons). By age group, most of damages occurred to consumers in their twenties (30.9%, 1,258 persons) and thirties (35.4%, 1,444 persons).

Meanwhile, redress of 2,385 cases or 58.6% of the e-commerce-related damages was sought based on agreement between consumers and business: for example, refund of purchase price (31.5%, 1,283 cases), contract cancellation (9.4%, 382 cases), and compensation.

The Agency currently discloses relevant information and encourages business to take voluntary corrective measures through Consumer Watchdog for Online Shopping (www.emonitor.or.kr). In addition, the Agency mentioned that expediting revision on ‘the Act on the Consumer Protection in the Electronic Commerce Transactions, etc’ is a necessity. The amendment includes items on strengthening responsibilities of Internet intermediaries as fundamental precautions against consumer damages.