Republic of Korea: Korean Fair Trade Commission fines OTT providers for impeding cancellations

On 14 February 2022, the Korean Fair Trade Commission fined Google, Netflix, KT, LG Uplus, and Content Wave a collective KRW 19.5 million (approx. USD 16'300). According to the authority, the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce states that any consumer can cancel a purchase order and get a refund for digital content if it has not been accessed within seven days of making the purchase. The authority found that aforementioned OTT-Providers broke this law by making it increasingly difficult to cancel subscriptions and purchases of digital content, resulting in the fine.