The Ministery of Food and Drug Safety is joining hands with Naver, Coupang, and other major online platforms to block illegal sales of food and drugs and false or exaggerated advertising. It will draw up sanction standards for sellers who repeatedly break the law and strengthen autonomous blocking using artificial intelligence (AI) and keyword and technical filtering.
The Ministery of Food and Drug Safety said on the 27th that it signed a business agreement with three associations—the Korea Online Shopping Association, the Korea TV Home Shopping Association, and the Korea Data Home Shopping Association—to eradicate illegal online distribution of food and drugs and false or exaggerated advertising.
The agreement includes not only government crackdowns but also strengthening systems for online platforms to filter illegal sales and ads on their own.
Under the agreement, the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety and the platform industry will promptly block illegal distribution and false or exaggerated advertising when found, and will also conduct education and publicity on proper online distribution and labeling and advertising of food and drugs.
In particular, platforms will strengthen autonomous management systems. The main tasks are fourfold: ▲ establishing reasonable sanction standards for sellers who repeatedly violate the rules ▲ strengthening monitoring capabilities for illegal online distribution ▲ operating keywords to filter illegal products ▲ using technical filtering.
This is also a follow-up measure to a proposal at last year's parliamentary audit by Baek Jong-heon, a Health and Welfare Committee Commissioner, who suggested the need to strengthen autonomous management of illegal distribution by online platforms.
After the signing ceremony, four platforms—Naver, Gmarket, Coupang, and CJ Olive Young—also shared the results of their autonomous management efforts to date. These platforms have taken steps such as setting sanction standards for repeat violators and strengthening their own monitoring capabilities.
The Ministery of Food and Drug Safety also announced results in detecting illegal or false ads using an AI-based online monitoring system, details of revisions to relevant laws and regulations, and public-private cooperation plans to block illegal sites.
The cooperation stems from the judgment that, as methods of selling and advertising food and drugs online change rapidly, government crackdowns alone make it difficult to catch illegal distribution in real time. The intent is to broaden the management scope by having platforms filter products on their own from the stage when sellers register items.
Kim Yong-jae, Vice Minister of the Ministery of Food and Drug Safety, said, "Online safety management of food and drugs is completed when private-sector autonomous management outcomes support the government's policy efforts," adding, "the government and the private sector will work together so that the autonomous management outcomes of major platforms can spread across the industry."
Rep. Baek Jong-heon said, "Safety management through proper labeling and advertising of food and drugs cannot be solved by the efforts of either the government or the private sector alone," adding, "the government should set the direction and the private sector should strengthen its autonomous management capabilities while communicating and cooperating together."