Consumer Complaints related to Overseas Purchase in First Half of 2015 Nearly Triples Year-on-Year

-Complaints mostly involved purchasing service, shipping service, and direct shipping service-

  In line with the growing popularity and market size of overseas purchasing, the scope of countries selling products and items are diversifying but the number of consumer complaints is also sharply increasing.

According to the Korea Consumer Agency (www.kca.go.kr), consumer complaints with respect to “overseas purchasing” reported to the 1372 Consumer Counseling center^* over the past three years has considerably increased from 1,191 cases in 2012 to 1,551 cases in 2013 and to 2,781 cases in 2014. Of note, the number of complaints nearly tripled year-on-year in the first half of 2015 (3,412 cases vs. 1,268 cases).

  * 1372 Consumer Counseling Center (www.ccn.go.kr): An integrated nationwide hotline that receives consumer counseling requests, participated by 10 consumer organizations, 16 municipal/local autonomous bodies, and the KCA.

  By type, complaints reported in the first half of this year mostly related to “purchasing service” (82.5%) followed by “shipping service” (8.0%) and “direct shipping service” (6.6%). Of the three, consumer complaints on shipping service increased, roughly 4.7 times higher than in the previous year and far outpacing the growth of total consumer complaints related to overseas purchasing (roughly 2.7 times higher than in the previous year). This is attributable to the increase in the number of small and mid-sized shipping agency services amid the rising popularity of overseas purchasing.

<Type of Consumer Complaints on Overseas purchasing by Year>

Unit No. of case(%)

  * Source : 1372 Consumer Counseling Center

  The reason for consumer complaints breaks down as follows: loss or late/wrong delivery (35.2%); excess charge for cancellation or return (21.9%); product defect and delaying/refusing warranty (15.1%); and delaying/refusing cancellation or refund (11.3%). Of the total complaints related to overseas purchasing, the portion of shipping service-related complaints has been continuously increasing since 2012 to reach 35.2% in the first half of 2015 (up 11.1%p year-on-year).

<Reason for Consumer Complaints on Overseas Purchasing by Year>

Unit No. of case(%)

* Source : 1372 Consumer Counseling Center

  Meanwhile, among overseas purchased items, consumer complaints mostly involved “apparel and footwear” (53.3%), accounting for 50~60% of consumer counseling requests from 2012 to the first half of 2015. Other items include “miscellaneous goods (such as bags) and personal effects” (11.7%) and “outdoor and leisure goods” (6.2%). In particular, consumer counseling requests more than tripled compared to the previous year regarding home appliances and IT gadgets (such as televisions and tablet PCs) and health supplements. This is because large screen televisions were mostly purchased by newlyweds and health supplements (such as weight-loss products and dietary supplements) were bought by consumers wanting to stay fit and healthy.

<Types of Overseas Purchased Items by Year>

Unit No. of case(%)

  By region, consumer complaints mostly came from Seoul (32.7%), Gyeonggi (28.0%), Busan (5.7%), Gyeongsang Province (5.3%), Chungcheong Province (5.3%), and Incheon (4.8%). By age group, complaints were mainly reported by consumers in their 30s (48.7%) followed by consumers in their 20s (28.8%), 40s (16.1%), and 50s (4.4%).

  By purchase amount (US dollar basis, excluding tariff and VAT), consumer complaints mostly involved purchases of less than KRW 200,000 (62.3%) followed by less than KRW 400,000 (20.9%), less than KRW 600,000 (6.5%), and more than KRW 1 million (6.1%).

  The KCA is to open the “Cross-Border Transaction Consumer Portal” so as to provide the latest information on overseas purchasing such as overseas online shopping mall operators that receive the most complaints, fraudulent websites, and products recalled overseas.