The Korea Fair Trade Commission said on the 4th that it decided to issue a corrective order and impose fines of 5 million won on the online English lecture company "Yanadoo" for alleged violations of the electronic commerce law. Yanadoo has been giving scholarships to students who take courses and write reviews since 2014. Yanadoo advertised that it gave these scholarships to 160,000 people in 2023–2024, but the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) found that 160,000 was the number of people who attempted the scholarship.
According to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC), Yanadoo faces allegations that, in advertising its scholarship program that has been operating since May 2014, it informed consumers of false facts or lured consumers by deceptive methods.
From December 2023 to November 2024, Yanadoo ran an ad on its website that said, "Already 8.8 billion won surpassed! As many as 160,000 people received scholarships." Then from November 2024 to May 2025, it changed the content to advertise, "Already 8.8 billion won surpassed! As many as 170,000 people attempted the scholarship (as of Oct. 2024)."
However, according to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) investigation, "160,000 people" was not the number who received scholarships but the number who attempted the scholarship course. Yanadoo was said to have been unable to present supporting data for "170,000 people."
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) also took issue with content advertising the completion rate of students attempting the scholarship on Yanadoo's website from around December 2023 to May last year. At the time, Yanadoo advertised that "the completion rate of students attempting the scholarship is three times that of students who only take lectures." But this applied only to the "full refund scholarship" course, not all scholarship courses.