South Korea's Fair Trade Commission said on April 27 it reviewed the terms of service of seven open market operators including Coupang, Naver, Kurly, SSG.com, Gmarket, 11st and Nol Universe, and corrected 11 types of unfair clauses.

The corrective measures focus on fixing provisions that shifted onto users the personal data protection and brokerage management responsibilities that open market operators should bear.

Under the previous terms, operators were exempt from liability in the event of hacking or personal data leaks regardless of fault. The commission revised the clauses so operators bear responsibility depending on intent or negligence when an incident occurs.

The commission also corrected clauses that uniformly exempted platform operators from liability on the grounds that they only mediate transactions, and clauses that fully exempted operators when users and operators share fault. Going forward, operators must bear compensation liability when they are at fault.

Settlement and refund terms unfavorable to sellers on the platform and consumers were also revised. Clauses that allowed operators to arbitrarily withhold settlement of sales proceeds for broad reasons such as “confirmation of improper credit card use” or “filing of a claim” were changed to require objective reasons to be specified in detail.

In Coupang’s case, a clause that treated members as having waived, and extinguished, rights to electronic payment instruments such as paid-for cash or points upon account withdrawal was limited so extinguishment applies only to those provided free of charge. A clause allowing the operator to switch to another payment method and process payment if the designated method fails was clarified so payment is made in the order designated by the user.

The commission also corrected or deleted clauses under which operating policies took precedence over official terms, clauses that discriminated refunds based on subscription payment cycles, clauses that treated silence as consent when terms are revised, and clauses limiting the scope of damages. The seven open market operators submitted correction plans for the unfair clauses and plan to implement them after revision procedures in the near future.