A total of 134 merchants were caught engaging in the fraudulent distribution of Onnuri gift certificates. The government plans to gradually reduce paper gift certificates over the next five years due to the high potential for fraudulent distribution.
On the 19th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced the results of a second field investigation into the fraudulent distribution of Onnuri gift certificates, detailing measures such as lowering exchange and purchase limits, strengthening penalties, and prohibiting abnormal use as part of a comprehensive improvement plan to eliminate the fraudulent distribution of Onnuri gift certificates.
The Ministry conducted field investigations on 449 merchants, including those with high sales, and identified 62 businesses that violated compliance requirements and 72 suspected merchants operating in restricted industries, totaling 134.
Among these, 15 companies that seriously disrupted the order of gift certificate distribution will be reported to the police. The reported companies include 12 stores that hoarded gift certificates for fraudulent exchanges, one ghost store that opened for the purpose of exchange but was not actually operating, and two merchants who evaded investigations by refusing to submit documents.
According to the comprehensive improvement plan for Onnuri gift certificates, starting next year, the maximum limit for individual merchants to exchange paper gift certificates at financial institutions monthly will be set at 50 million won. The current maximum limit is 9.99 billion won, which has become virtually meaningless. The minimum exchange limit will be lowered from the existing 8 million won to 3.1 million won. Increasing the exchange limit will be done gradually through sales verification to prevent excessive exchanges via short-term sales adjustments.
The regulations regarding traditional markets will be revised to prohibit the 'reuse' of gift certificates received from sales by merchants, 'resale' transactions between consumers and gift certificate dealers, and the acceptance of gift certificates by non-affiliated stores. Illegitimate gains will be reclaimed. To prevent false affiliations, a temporary registration system will be introduced to verify actual affiliation status, and a regular inspection system will be established for each market.
To prevent excessive purchasing and hoarding of paper gift certificates in advance, starting next year, the individual monthly discount purchase limit for paper gift certificates will be drastically reduced from the current 1.5 million won to 500,000 won to ensure benefits go to actual purchasers.
Additionally, the policy is to gradually reduce the paper gift certificates that have experienced fraudulent distribution over the next five years. Of the 1.7 trillion won in paper gift certificates scheduled for issuance next year, 400 billion won will be converted to digital gift certificates.
Instead, educational training on the use of digital gift certificates will be promoted for groups with limited access to digital gift certificates, such as the elderly. An automatic recharge feature will be added to card-type gift certificates to enhance the convenience of digital gift certificates.
Won Young-jun, head of the Small Business Policy Office of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, emphasized, "The cooperation of the National Merchants Association, regional merchant organizations, and individual merchants is crucial for this plan to take root effectively in the field."