"Account Suspended over 'Suspected Counterfeit'... Alert Issued for Open Market Dispute Damages"

Disputes Soar to 442 Cases in the First Half of the Year
7 Out of 10 Involve Open Market Platforms

Mr. A, who imports and sells nutritional supplements through an online shopping mall, recently had a bewildering experience. He received a notice from a well-known open market platform where his shop was listed, stating that his account was suspended due to suspected sales of counterfeit products. Mr. A protested the unfairness, explaining that he only purchases items directly from official overseas distributors after receiving orders and never even holds inventory. However, the platform refused to reinstate his account, claiming that "a third party provided information" without presenting any concrete evidence.

As the online platform market continues to grow in size, the conflict between major open market operators and small businesses using these platforms has reached a dangerous level. There is growing criticism that platform operators are abusing their dominant position by frequently imposing "suspend first, explain later" sanctions for suspected counterfeit products or alleged privacy violations, thereby threatening the livelihood of vendors on the platform.

According to the Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency on August 2, the number of online platform-related disputes submitted to the Fair Trade Dispute Mediation Council in the first half of this year reached 442, up 121% from 200 cases during the same period last year. The proportion of platform-related cases among all fair trade disputes also surged significantly, rising from 18.4% last year to 28.3% in the first half of this year.

By industry, disputes concerning open market platforms—such as Coupang, Naver, Gmarket, and 11Street—reached 325 cases, accounting for 73.5% of the total, making it the largest category. Next were food delivery services (57 cases, 12.9%) and secondhand trading (14 cases, 3.2%).

The crux of the disputes lies in the unilateral sanctions derived from the platforms' superior position. When there are indications of counterfeit or copyright violations, platforms frequently freeze sales immediately and suspend all related accounts "suspected" to be operated by the same individual. In practice, however, clear standards or reasons for these sanctions are not disclosed, and the burden of explanation is pushed entirely onto the vendors. There are also ongoing reports of unfairly passing on return costs to consumers or excessively charging advertising fees after converting promotion periods to paid services without prior notice.

The Fair Trade Mediation Agency stated, "It is necessary to always keep purchase and customs clearance documents on file to respond immediately to account suspension measures," adding, "To respond quickly to the increasing number of disputes, we will focus on preparing institutional measures, such as the passage of the 'Fair Trade Dispute Mediation Act' in the National Assembly."

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