The core responsible person for the 1.8 trillion won T-MEP (TMON·WeMakePrice) settlement and refund issue, former TMON CEO Ryu Kwang-jin has filed a lawsuit regarding the provisional seizure of his building, owned by the representatives of the affected companies. There are concerns in the industry that Ryu's actions, focusing on securing his rights, could serve as a setback for the normalization of TMON.
According to court case records on the 31st, former CEO Ryu filed a lawsuit related to the provisional seizure of his building at the Seoul Central District Court on June 30. Ryu had previously requested the court to expedite the trial regarding the provisional seizure applied by the representatives of sellers associated with TMON for his owned building in Bangbae-dong, Seocho-gu, Seoul.
A representative of the affected company noted, "It is no different from fighting over the legality of the provisional seizure in a civil case to eliminate the provisional seizure by the affected companies," and called it "an irresponsible behavior."
The real estate registration certificate for Ryu's building records five provisional seizures. These five are the representatives of the affected companies, and the total amount they have claimed is 4.097924850 billion won, which is compensation for the damages caused by the unresolved sales proceeds due to TMON's operational issues. If the provisional seizure is granted, the respondent's equity cannot be disposed of arbitrarily. ChosunBiz attempted to reach Ryu for a comment, but did not succeed.
The T-MEP crisis is an incident that occurred last July when the e-commerce platforms TMON and WeMakePrice failed to timely pay the seller's fees and consumer refunds. At the time, approximately 48,000 companies were affected, and among them, 981 companies (about 2.1%) suffered losses exceeding 100 million won. This figure accounts for 88% of the total losses.
TMON is currently under the ownership of OASIS, a company specializing in fresh food delivery. Ryu, the core responsible person for the T-MEP crisis, stepped down from his position as CEO during TMON's rehabilitation process. However, the efforts of the sellers to secure their claims are ongoing. Park Si-hyung, a representative lawyer at Seonggyeong Law Firm, said, "We need to resolve this through civil lawsuits and criminal trials."
There are also predictions that such a situation will pose a burden on TMON's normalization. Seo Yong-gu, a professor of management at Sookmyung Women's University, stated, "As one of the main perpetrators of the T-MEP crisis, irresponsible behavior is connected to sincerity," adding that "regardless of OASIS's efforts to normalize TMON after acquiring it, a negative atmosphere might form, leading to being shunned by creditors, sellers, and consumers."
An industry insider remarked, "With a repayment rate of only 0.76%, the unpaid unsettled amounts for the affected seller representatives remain losses," adding, "In such a situation, moves to protect personal assets do not seem to signal well."