The Ministry of SMEs and Startups on the 11th held an "online platform star rating system win-win roundtable" at the Foundation of Large and Small Business, Agriculture and Fisheries Cooperation to hear on-site difficulties of small merchants caused by online platforms' star ratings and reviews and to discuss mutual growth measures.
The roundtable was attended by six online platforms—Naver, Kakao, Baemin, Coupang, Yeogi Eottae, and Nol Universe—and representatives and officials of small merchants in related industries, including the Korea Federation of Restaurants, the Korea Motel Association, and the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise (KFME).
Platform companies shared each company's star rating and review management systems in operation to reduce unnecessary friction between consumers and small merchants and to prevent damage from malicious reviews.
Some platforms said they give business owners the autonomy to choose whether reviews are displayed and how they are managed, and limit edits to content and star ratings to within a certain period after a review is written to prevent malicious changes to past reviews. They also introduced systems under which, when a business owner files for a review to be taken down, the review is temporarily blinded for 30 days or excluded from the calculation of the average rating.
Small merchant groups conveyed various cases of damage and difficulties experienced on the ground due to the review and star rating system.
Small merchants cited as key difficulties cases in which people demand free services or compensation and, if refused, give low ratings, as well as damage from malicious false reviews by users who did not actually order or use the service. They especially complained of a structural problem in which, when most satisfied customers do not leave reviews, even a few malicious low-rating reviews can sharply drag down a store's overall rating.
Small merchants urged the establishment of objective criteria to distinguish legitimate reviews from malicious ones and the creation of objection and explanation procedures, along with sanctions against malicious reviewers and stronger neutral dispute mediation functions by platforms.
On the day, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) laid out support measures to protect small merchants and build a fair win-win ecosystem.
For small merchants harmed by star ratings and reviews, the government will support legal counseling by specialized attorneys and dispute response through the Unfair Trade Damage Counseling Center, and to induce win-win cooperation in the online platform field, it plans to expand the co-prosperity growth evaluation to encourage an equal transaction relationship between platform companies and small merchants to take root.
Lee Byeong-gweon, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS) second vice minister, said, "We need to improve the problem in which the review and star rating system creates a consumer-dominant structure, causing small merchants to suffer damage even from a few malicious low ratings," and added, "Platforms should establish protection standards that can distinguish legitimate consumer opinions from malicious rating attacks." He continued, "We will actively reflect voices from the field in policy and continue to communicate with the platform industry to substantively protect the rights and interests of small merchants."