Park, an office worker living in Seoul, recently had a baffling experience on Naver's limited-edition resale platform "KREAM." A buyer appeared for a product Park had listed earlier, but Park was on an overseas trip and could not ship it, so Park marked it as "refuse to sell." A penalty fee equal to 5% of the product price was immediately imposed. Park submitted proof such as an airline ticket and explained the situation, but KREAM said, "When overseas, all sales posts must be deleted. The fee is nonrefundable."
Park said, "A buyer can cancel a purchase within 15 minutes without a penalty. While the buyer is given time to think, if the seller refuses to sell, a fee is imposed immediately like a fine," adding, "Isn't that unfair?"
KREAM's "penalty policy" is drawing criticism for being applied excessively to sellers. KREAM says its penalty policy operates to prevent fake listings and secure transaction trust. But even if a seller simply makes a mistake or has unavoidable circumstances, there are almost no exceptions, and lately users have been complaining that the policy is excessive.
According to the industry on the 21st, KREAM imposes penalty fees for delayed sales, delayed shipping, non-receipt, and abuse of inspection standards. If a seller refuses to sell after a buyer indicates intent to purchase, a fee of 5% of the sale price is imposed within 1 hour of the buyer's wait, and 10% after 1 hour. If shipping information is not entered within 48 hours after a transaction is concluded, 10% is charged; 10% for product mismatches or missing components; and 15% for shipping counterfeit or used products.
The problem is that, given KREAM's nature of handling many high-priced product transactions, the penalty amounts can be large. KREAM limits reasons for penalty reduction to three: ▲ operational mistakes due to lack of familiarity with the service ▲ courier responsibility ▲ unintentional shipment of counterfeit or used products. KREAM said, "If it is clearly the seller's mistake or falls under the penalty reduction criteria, we reduce the fee at any time."
In practice, however, if the case does not fall under the three reasons, a fee is imposed on the seller even without clear malicious intent. Even when a problem arises that the seller can resolve within the deadline, penalties are imposed unconditionally, drawing consumer criticism. Users can sign up and conduct transactions on the KREAM app only by registering card or account information, and fees are imposed immediately based on that.
One user said, "I forgot the product box and was notified of inspection failure, but when I said I would take it straight to the offline drop-off center, they said the penalty had already been imposed and it would be returned." Another user said, "I mistakenly entered the tracking number instead of the submission number; I called customer service and left an inquiry, but in the end I couldn't sell the item and still paid the fee."
Users argue it is unfair to impose fees unilaterally on sellers because there is no channel within the KREAM app for sellers and buyers to communicate directly. Park said, "On other platforms, sellers and buyers can message before a transaction to confirm, 'Is this the item for sale?,' but KREAM has no such system."
Junggonara, Karrot, and Bungaejangter allow users to check whether an item is actually for sale and its condition through chat before a transaction. At Bungaejangter, even if a seller refuses a transaction, there is no penalty, and the buyer is refunded. The luxury community "Sicment" under Naver and the luxury transaction platform "CHIC," created together with KREAM, also support chat. No penalty is imposed for transaction cancellations agreed to by the buyer.
A KREAM official said, "Because members can be both sellers and buyers, we are implementing the penalty policy to provide a safer peer-to-peer transaction experience."
An industry official said, "Users' trust cannot be secured simply by guaranteeing genuine products," adding, "A penalty system is necessary, but if it operates in practice by shifting responsibility to sellers rather than protecting consumers, it will be difficult to ensure fairness." The official added, "Only when procedures for recognizing exceptions and channels for appeals are in place can the platform continue to grow."