Coupang Eats Pushes Back Against Fair Trade Commission Surcharge: "It Violates the Principle of Fairness"

"Efforts to provide better service to customers ruled 'illegal'"

Coupang Eats pushed back on the 9th against the Korea Fair Trade Commission's decision to impose a surcharge of KRW 300.8 billion on the company. It said that efforts to provide better service to customers had been ruled “illegal.” It also called the size of the surcharge clear discrimination.

Coupang made the statement in a position paper released that day titled “Coupang's Position on the Most-Favored Treatment Ruling Against Coupang Eats.” It first explained that in 2023, when Coupang Eats was a late entrant in the food delivery app market with a market share of just 7%, it introduced “Wow Stores” as a mutually beneficial policy that could be a “win-win” for both consumers and restaurant owners. The company said the policy encouraged restaurant owners to voluntarily set reasonable prices to help customers struggling with high prices and supported sales growth through free delivery, yet the Korea Fair Trade Commission deemed it “illegal.”

Coupang also said the surcharge was excessive compared with penalties in past cases. “Delivery app company A was fined KRW 468 million for allegedly forcing restaurant owners from 2013 to 2016 to set prices on its platform equal to or lower than those on all other channels, including competing delivery apps,” Coupang said. “In company A's case, the Korea Fair Trade Commission imposed a fixed-amount surcharge because it was difficult to calculate the relevant sales for determining the penalty. But for Coupang Eats, it based the penalty on ‘total delivery sales,’ including sales from restaurant owners who had not even been contacted, and imposed a surcharge more than 600 times greater than company A's.” Coupang said that including sales from restaurant owners unrelated to the case in the calculation inflated the surcharge and undermined the company's right to defend itself.

Coupang also said, “By covering the full cost of free delivery and expanding various consumer benefits, Coupang Eats has checked the dominance of monopolistic businesses and brought competition and innovation to the market.” It added, “After carefully reviewing the final written decision, we plan to fully present our position through due legal procedures.”

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