Republic of Korea: Fair Trade Commission issued ruling in its investigation into TMON over failure to refund customers

On 7 May 2025, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) issued corrective orders, prohibitions on future violations, and public disclosure orders against the e-commerce platform TMON. The measures were imposed following the company’s failure to refund payments to customers within three business days of subscription cancellation, as required by the Electronic Commerce Act. TMON had approximately KRW 67.5 billion in unrefunded payments (186’562 cases) from 3 December 2023 to 24 July 2024. The FTC determined that TMON, acting as an intermediary receiving payments from consumers, was subject to the refund requirements under the Act. The corrective orders require the company to include the unrefunded amounts in its rehabilitation plan for submission to the court and to establish procedures for consumers to check and request corrections to their unrefunded amounts. If the rehabilitation plan is approved, consumers may receive partial payments of their unrefunded amounts according to this plan.