Toss Files KFTC Complaint Against NAVER Over POS Integration; NAVER: "We Haven't Excluded Any Particular Company"

Toss Place: "NAVER's Failure to Integrate Toss POS Is Unfair"

Toss subsidiary Toss Place filed a complaint with the Korea Fair Trade Commission, arguing that it is unfair for NAVER not to integrate Toss's point-of-sale (POS) terminals with its store information service. NAVER countered that it is gradually expanding integrations with POS providers and has not excluded any particular company.

According to the information technology (IT) industry on November 3, Toss Place submitted a complaint to the KFTC on the afternoon of November 2, alleging that NAVER (NAVER) abused its market-dominant position and engaged in unfair trade practices.

Toss Place took issue with "Place Plus," a service that links payment information from POS systems with NAVER Place to provide users with information about stores. Toss Place alleges that NAVER deliberately excluded Toss POS from the systems eligible for integration, and that no integration has taken place despite repeated requests for discussions.

NAVER said, "Place Plus began as a beta service in June 2025, and we have been gradually expanding POS integrations. In this process, we have neither excluded nor treated any particular company unfairly." It said that as of August 2026, it supported integrations with 15 POS providers, and was rolling them out gradually because there are now around 100 POS providers. It added, "We are not currently aware of the complaint filed with the KFTC, but if proceedings begin, we will fully explain the facts and clearly demonstrate that we have not violated the law."

The key questions are whether NAVER had a reasonable basis for not integrating Toss POS and whether its actions constitute an unjustified refusal to deal or discriminatory treatment under the Fair Trade Act.

Industry observers see the conflict between the two companies as an extension of an earlier dispute over reward marketing. Toss's reward marketing gives users points for completing tasks set by advertisers, such as conducting searches. NAVER objected that prompting users to search in this way could distort search results. Toss ended its reward marketing linked to NAVER searches in October.

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