Naver was sanctioned by the Fair Trade Commission for deceptive and exaggerated advertising, presenting its Plus Membership benefits as unlimited.
On the 11th, the Fair Trade Commission determined that Naver's advertising for Plus Membership violated the Display Advertising Act and issued a corrective order to prevent similar advertisements in the future.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, Naver misled consumers with exaggerated content in advertisements for its Plus Membership 2nd anniversary celebration, which ran from June 7 to 28, 2022.
The Naver Plus Membership, offered at 4,900 won per month, allows users to earn additional points at Naver Smart Store and provides digital content usage benefits. Naver advertised it as "there's no end to points earned" and "applicable for rewards up to 5%", but it was found that the earning rate drops to 2% when the cumulative payment amount exceeds 200,000 won, and the earning limit per product is restricted to 20,000 won.
Additionally, purchasing multiple identical products did not allow for overlapping points. The Fair Trade Commission pointed out that these important restrictions were placed on a different advertising page, which could lead consumers to misunderstand the reality of the benefits after several clicks.
Regarding digital content usage benefits, Naver advertised that it provides "a vast amount of digital content," but in reality, only one service can be used per month, according to the Fair Trade Commission. Notably, while advertising SPOTV NOW as offering "unlimited access" or "unlimited viewing," it was concealed that users could only watch the games of five selected Korean players' teams without limits.
A Fair Trade Commission official noted, "As the subscription economy is becoming more active, we plan to continuously monitor unfair advertising practices related to membership subscriptions in the future."