Five Small Business Groups on Coupang Eats Outage: "Calculate Losses and Compensate"

Calls for Comprehensive Compensation, Including Advertising Fee Refunds
Coupang Eats to Compensate Restaurant Owners for Canceled Orders

Five organizations related to delivery platforms, including the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, called for compensation for losses related to the Coupang and Coupang Eats system outage on October 9.

The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, the National Merchants Association, the Korea Foodservice Industry Association, the Korea Franchise Association, and the National Cafe Owners Cooperative issued a joint statement on October 11, saying, "The network error directly threatened small business owners' right to survival, going beyond mere inconvenience."

Coupang's headquarters in Gwangjin-gu. Yonhap News Agency

They stressed, "We must not turn a blind eye to the losses and outcry of food service workers who rely on late-night delivery sales, or of small business owners selling online who paid for expensive promotions and advertising but were not even given a fair opportunity to make sales."

They added, "We urge Coupang to transparently calculate small business owners' operating losses caused by this outage and swiftly put together a comprehensive, meaningful compensation plan, including refunds of advertising fees."

A system error that began around midnight on October 9 and lasted for more than two hours disrupted delivery orders through Coupang Eats. In some cases, the outage occurred after orders had been accepted, preventing restaurants from pressing the button to mark food as ready. In other cases, riders arrived at restaurants but could not confirm customers' addresses and were unable to make deliveries.

Coupang Eats plans to give a 3,000-won coupon to customers whose food orders were canceled and compensate restaurant owners for canceled orders.

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