"Delivery Is Essential, but the Outage Ruined Our Late-Night Business": System Failure Sparks Outcry... Coupang Eats: "100% Compensation for Canceled Orders" (Comprehensive)

Small Business Groups Call on Coupang Eats to "Compensate for Losses"
Call for Comprehensive Compensation, Including Advertising Fee Refunds
Coupang Eats: "Automatic Settlement Without Separate Application"

Five organizations related to delivery platforms, including the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, called for compensation for losses stemming from the Coupang and Coupang Eats system outage on October 9. Coupang Eats said it would compensate merchants with 100% of the settlement amount they would have received for regular sales for orders accepted but canceled during the outage, and would not charge advertising fees for those orders.

The Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, the National Merchants Federation, the Korea Foodservice Industry Association, the Korea Franchise Association, and the National Cooperative of Cafe Owners issued a joint statement on October 11, saying, "The system failure went beyond causing inconvenience and directly threatened the livelihoods of small business owners."

Coupang headquarters in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News Agency

They stressed, "We must not turn a blind eye to the losses and anguish of restaurant workers who depend on late-night delivery sales, or of small businesses operating online stores that failed to get a fair chance to sell despite spending heavily on promotions and advertising." They added, "Coupang must transparently calculate small businesses' operating losses caused by this outage and swiftly prepare a meaningful and comprehensive compensation plan, including refunds for advertising fees."

Coupang Eats said it was compensating merchants with 100% of the settlement amount they would have received for regular sales for orders accepted but canceled during the outage. The payments are processed automatically, with no separate application required. The company also said it would not charge merchants advertising fees for orders canceled during the outage.

Coupang Eats apologized to customers and restaurant owners who experienced inconvenience due to a service error during the late-night hours of October 9. It said it was also directly apologizing to customers and informing them about compensation to prevent customer complaints from being directed at restaurants.

Earlier, a system error from 12:30 a.m. to 2:31 a.m. on October 9 disrupted delivery orders placed through Coupang Eats. In some cases, the system failed after an order was accepted, preventing merchants from pressing the button to mark an order as prepared. In other cases, delivery riders arrived at restaurants but could not complete deliveries because they could not access customers' addresses.

Coupang Eats is giving customers whose food orders were canceled a 3,000-won coupon, while compensating restaurant owners for orders canceled during the outage. Coupang Eats said, "We will do our utmost to improve system management and take measures to prevent a recurrence so that we can provide a more stable service."

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