"Promised 100% Penalty Refund" - Telecom Company Fined 1.4 Billion Won for Misleading Consumers in Advertisement

KCC Investigates 1,621 Advertisements
Broadcasting and Telecommunications Bundled Product Ads Detected
Deceptive Ads Account for 82.7%, the Highest Rate

"50-inch TV Provided When Subscribing to Internet+TV" "100% Penalty Fee Resolution"

Advertising slogans from telecom companies claiming great benefits when combining mobile phones, internet, and TV broadcasting communication products have come under scrutiny.

The Korea Communications Commission held a plenary meeting at the Government Complex Gwacheon on the 22nd and decided to impose a total fine of 1.471 billion KRW on the four major telecom companies for false, exaggerated, and deceptive advertising related to broadcasting communication bundled service products.

A mobile phone store in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

By company, SK Telecom was fined 420 million KRW, KT 438 million KRW, SK Broadband 314 million KRW, and LG Uplus 299 million KRW.

The KCC revealed that after fact-checking 1,621 online and offline advertisements from the four telecom companies between July and December last year, 465 cases (28.7%) were found to violate rules by restricting consumers' rational choice through false, exaggerated, or deceptive advertising.

The violation rates by company were SK Telecom at 32.7%, KT at 29.9%, SK Broadband at 24.5%, and LG Uplus at 23.3%, respectively.

By violation type, deceptive advertising that only displayed key benefits such as "50-inch TV provided when subscribing to Internet+TV" or "Total 700,000 KRW discount" without properly indicating or omitting specific usage conditions like eligible plans, contract periods, or affiliated card usage performance accounted for the largest share at 82.7%.

Next, false advertising accounted for 15%, which included claims like "maximum support," "100% penalty fee resolution," where actual benefits users could receive were presented with terms like 'maximum' or 'best' without objective evidence, or misleadingly indicated that penalty fees would be fully covered.

Following that, exaggerated advertising at 2.3% involved displaying maximum discount benefits including contract discounts, bundled discounts, and basic gifts as if they were unconditionally available to all users, such as "1.5 million KRW discount" or "benefits worth 900,000 KRW."

KCC Chairman Kim Hong-il stated, "False, exaggerated, and deceptive advertising occurs because telecom companies focus on subscriber acquisition competition rather than fundamental competition such as improving service quality and reducing usage fees," adding, "Through this corrective order and fine imposition, we aim to induce telecom companies' voluntary self-purification efforts and will further strengthen market monitoring against acts that infringe on user interests."

He also urged, "We ask users to carefully check discount benefits from bundling, penalty fees, and methods to cancel bundled products when subscribing to bundled services, so as not to be misled by false, exaggerated, or deceptive advertising such as giveaways or free provision of specific products."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.