April 28, 2024

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A chinese e-commerce platform, Temu (Yonhap)

South Korea's antitrust regulator said Wednesday it will strengthen the monitoring of unfair business acts by foreign platform operators and equally apply relevant domestic laws to them for swift and stern punishment for any illegalities.

They are part of a set of measures presented by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) that aim to better protect consumers amid growing complaints regarding their use of China's AliExpress and other foreign online retailers.

According to the plan, the FTC will beef up the monitoring of foreign online platform operators for their possible violation of electronic commerce regulations by abusing dominant market positions over smaller businesses. The regulator will push for revising the e-commerce act to enforce overseas operators to designate a local agent in charge of customer services.

The Korean Intellectual Property Office will join hands with the Korea Customs Service for stronger efforts to prevent the circulation of fake goods through customers' direct purchases of foreign items online, the FTC said.

The government will push to launch a hotline with foreign retailers to address users' complaints, and expand the operation of state customer services. It seeks to sign an agreement with AliExpress, Temu and other entities that calls for cooperation and voluntary efforts to better ensure the rights of consumers.

"Foreign online platforms are subject to domestic law, but there have been limitations regarding our inspection and crackdown on their acts that cause harm to customers. The government will double efforts to fairly and swiftly administer laws so as to ease 'reverse discrimination' concerns," FTC official Park Se-min said.

The regulator is conducting an inspection into AliExpress on suspicions of its violation of consumer protection duties, as the number of complaints filed against it and submitted to the Consumers Union of Korea rose sharply to 465 cases last year from the previous year's 93, in line with the sharp growth in the number of users. (Yonhap)