The Democratic Party of Korea will draw up a win-win plan to resolve regulatory imbalances between offline stores such as big-box retailers and online platforms. Some are also floating a plan to ease regulations on so-called "dawn delivery" by offline stores.
Moon Geum-ju, a floor spokesperson for the Democratic Party, said, "The party and government took time, through a working-level party-government consultation, to prepare win-win measures for the online and offline markets," and noted, "Given the slump in the offline market, the regulatory balance between the online and offline markets is not right."
Earlier, one outlet reported that the party and government are pushing legislation to allow online ordering and delivery outside business hours for big-box retailers. The current Distribution Industry Development Act limits big-box retailers' business hours from midnight to 10 a.m., and the plan would add a proviso that "business activities for e-commerce are not subject to this." However, the Democratic Party said it was only one of the options mentioned at the meeting.
Moon said, "The working-level party-government meeting at the time was a session to receive the government's proposals for preparing win-win measures for the online and offline markets," and said, "Allowing late-night operations at big-box retailers was not the main point."
That such discussions took place in the party-government consultation is not unrelated to the "Coupang situation." While Coupang must be held accountable for a massive leak of personal information, the reality is that there is no platform to replace Coupang. If the bill mentioned in the party-government consultation passes the plenary session, big-box retailers and others will also be able to deliver during late-night hours.