Preventing Fraudulent Distribution of Onnuri Gift Certificates... Only 500,000 KRW Worth of Paper Certificates Can Be Purchased Monthly

Franchise Monthly Maximum Currency Exchange Limit Set at 50 Million Won
Gradual Reduction of Paper Gift Certificate Issuance Planned

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups will limit the maximum monthly exchange limit for individual affiliated stores to 50 million KRW to prevent the illegal distribution of Onnuri gift certificates, reduce the monthly discount purchase limit for individuals' paper gift certificates to 500,000 KRW, and gradually reduce the issuance of paper gift certificates.

On the 19th, the Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced a comprehensive improvement plan aimed at blocking illegal distribution of Onnuri gift certificates and promoting the use of digital gift certificates, at a dedicated training center of the Small Enterprise and Market Service in Seoul.

Through an expert meeting involving merchants, tax accountants, accountants, and lawyers, considering the current distribution status of Onnuri gift certificates, the maximum monthly limit for individual affiliated stores to exchange paper gift certificates at financial institutions was set at 50 million KRW. The minimum exchange limit was lowered from the previous 8 million KRW to 3.1 million KRW based on an analysis of gift certificate sales at stores selling paper gift certificates. Even if an individual affiliated store requests an increase in the exchange limit, it will be gradually allowed only after sales verification to prevent excessive exchanges through short-term sales adjustments such as false sales.

The reuse of gift certificates (using gift certificates received from sales to other merchants), resale (transactions between consumers and gift certificate dealers), and acceptance of gift certificates by non-affiliated stores are prohibited. The Ministry will also revise traditional market laws to cover the entire distribution of gift certificates, including recovering unfair profits.

In particular, to prevent excessive purchase and hoarding of paper gift certificates in advance and to ensure benefits reach actual buyers, from next year, the monthly discount purchase limit per individual for paper gift certificates will be reduced from the current 1.5 million KRW to 500,000 KRW.

There are plans to gradually reduce the issuance of paper gift certificates. The convenience of digital gift certificates will be enhanced by adding features such as automatic recharge for card-type gift certificates. For groups with lower accessibility to digital gift certificates, paper gift certificates will be gradually reduced over the next five years, while the Small Enterprise and Market Service and financial institutions handling gift certificates will provide education on the use of digital gift certificates. Next year, out of the government’s proposed 1.7 trillion KRW issuance of paper gift certificates, 400 billion KRW will be converted to digital gift certificates, operating with 1.3 trillion KRW.

Won Young-jun, Director of the Small Business Policy Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, emphasized, “For this measure to be well established in the field, cooperation from the National Federation of Merchants, local merchant organizations, and individual merchants is most important,” adding, “We ask merchant representatives to take the lead in preventing illegal distribution from taking root in our markets and to adopt an attitude where merchant associations take full responsibility if illegal distribution occurs.”

In response, Lee Chung-hwan, President of the National Federation of Merchants, said, “Together with branch heads, we will strive to catch the two rabbits of eradicating illegal distribution of Onnuri gift certificates and revitalizing their use, so that the original purpose of the Onnuri gift certificate issuance project to improve sales in traditional markets and shopping districts is realized in the field.”

Meanwhile, as a result of on-site inspections by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups on high-sales affiliated stores of Onnuri gift certificates, a total of 134 stores were found violating compliance requirements, including 62 stores and 72 suspected affiliated stores operating in restricted industries such as retail liquor stores. These will be sanctioned through administrative measures. On the 5th of last month, seven companies that seriously disrupted the order of gift certificate distribution were reported, and an additional 15 companies are scheduled to be reported this time.

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