With false and exaggerated advertising through online platforms and social networking services (SNS) increasing in the mobile telecoms market, there have been calls to impose user-protection responsibilities on advertising and brokerage firms as well.

Cho Kyung-tae (조경태), a People Power Party lawmaker on the National Assembly's Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, said on Oct. 19 he plans to propose an amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act to prevent consumer harm from incomplete sales driven by new marketing practices in the mobile market.

Data reviewed by Cho's office showed 1,473 complaints of unfair practices in the mobile market from January to July, up 26.5 percent from 1,164 a year earlier. Reports of false and exaggerated advertising rose 73.9 percent to 859 from 494. Violations of the prior approval system that manages sales qualifications for mobile phone retailers also rose 80 percent.

Cho cited as a cause the expansion of marketing through online platforms, SNS, influencers and ad agencies, as the obligation to disclose subsidies was eliminated after the repeal of the Mobile Device Distribution Act. Under the current Telecommunications Business Act, advertising, solicitation and brokerage firms that are not directly involved in handset activations are excluded from the prior approval system.

In damage cases reviewed by the lawmaker's office, some sellers used so-called "holy-grail price lists" to promise high subsidies and then demanded sign-ups to expensive plans or add-on services that were not specified in the advertisements. In other cases, subsidies were presented as including discounts tied to handset returns or affiliated credit cards.

Cho said, "Even though the repeal of the Mobile Device Distribution Act and the expansion of platforms have increased the influence of online, short-form and SNS ads on the purchase stage, there are no relevant rules, making it difficult to provide user relief." He said he plans to propose an amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act to apply mobile market management systems to all areas where user harm can occur and to strengthen each party's responsibility to protect users.