The Korea Fair Trade Commission said on the 27th that Coupang corrected its terms and conditions that had improperly exempted the company from its responsibility for personal information protection.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) on this day announced the results of its review of the terms of service of seven major open market operators, including Coupang, Naver, Kurly, SSG.com, Gmarket, 11Street, and Nol Universe Co. The review found a total of 11 types of unfair terms across the seven companies. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) recommended corrections, and all seven companies cited made revisions to the unfair terms.
One type of unfair term—"unjustly exempting or shifting the company's responsibility for personal information protection"—was found at six companies, excluding SSG.com. In particular, Coupang had specified in its terms that "the company is not responsible for any damages caused by all illegal access by third parties to the server." Open market operators like Coupang have a duty to securely store user information collected in the course of a transaction. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) determined that Coupang's terms exempted the operator from liability regardless of fault and required users to bear all damages. Coupang deleted the cited provision.
Naver, which said "the company is not responsible for damages arising from the leakage or provision of information to others," and Gmarket, which said "if information is compromised regardless of the company's intent or negligence, the company is not responsible for it," also revised the related terms.
In addition, the following were corrected: ▲ a clause that disclaimed liability for compensation when an open market operator's intent or negligence caused damage to merchants and consumers ▲ a clause that unilaterally changed payment methods and other terms without user consent ▲ a clause that unjustly withheld sales proceeds payable to merchants.
Kwak Go-eun, head of the Terms and Special Transactions Division at the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC), said, "This measure will help create a transaction environment in which users can use services with confidence by strengthening platform operators' management and intermediary responsibilities for the risk of personal information leakage in the digital environment."