Bum Seok Austin Kim, who leads Woowa Brothers, the operator of Baemin, said on the 14th that the most-favored treatment policy is "not our company's policy." Most-favored treatment is when a platform operator requires merchants on the platform to apply transaction conditions such as product prices that are the same as or more favorable than those on other platforms. Through this, Baemin has faced allegations that it has manipulated (controlled) the prices of merchants on the platform.
During a National Policy Committee audit conducted that day, Rep. Lee In-young of the Democratic Party of Korea asked whether Baemin, not the merchants, directly manipulated prices through most-favored treatment. Kim replied, "If such a situation occurred, it seems there was a mistake," giving this answer.
When Rep. Lee pointed out that both most-favored treatment and price manipulation were being done, Kim said, "As I understand it, owners set prices themselves. (However) I fully understood the issues you pointed out."
There was also a claim that industrial accidents at Woowa Youths, a subsidiary of Woowa Brothers, are more frequent than those at shipyards and construction companies. According to Rep. Shin Jang-sik of the Rebuilding Korea Party, Woowa Youths in Jul. changed the criteria for dispatch acceptance waiting time and acceptance rate, cutting the existing waiting time from 60 seconds to 40 seconds. In the process, Woowa Youths delivery riders had to check their phones frequently even while driving, which increased the accident rate.
According to data obtained by the office of Rep. Park Hae-cheol of the Democratic Party, a member of the Environment and Labor Committee, from the Korea Workers' Compensation & Welfare Service (K-COMWEL), Woowa Youths recorded many industrial accident applications and approvals from 2022 to last year. From this year through Aug., 1,135 cases were filed. Of these, 1,071 cases (94%) were approved.
When Rep. Shin asked whether he was aware that terms such as dispatch acceptance waiting time and acceptance rate calculations had changed, Kim replied, "I know." When Shin then asked about a possible review, Kim countered by asking, "May I respond?" but did not deliver an answer on improvement or review. That was because Shin said, "Do not answer."
There was also a claim that Baemin and Coupang Eats, which hold the top two market shares in the delivery platform market, abused their market-dominant positions to pass harm on to store owners (self-employed) and consumers. Rep. Lee Kang-il of the Democratic Party said, "Although the two companies appear to offer small-order discounts by promoting single-house delivery and single-portion services, in reality they forced excessive discount rates of more than 20% on the self-employed, shifting the burden onto them."
Kim Myung-gyu, head of Coupang Eats, and Bum Seok Austin Kim, head of Woowa Brothers, stood side by side to state their positions on the points raised. Kim Myung-gyu said, "We are taking the points raised seriously," and added, "We will verify clearly to prevent a recurrence." Bum Seok Austin Kim also said, "I fully know and understand."