Republic of Korea: Fair Trade Commission fined Temu KRW 358 million over violations of Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising and Act on Consumer Protection

On 11 June 2025, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) imposed an administrative penalty of KRW 357 million and a penalty surcharge of KRW 1 million on Temu for violations of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising and the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce. The FTC stated that between 25 August 2023 and 20 March 2024, Temu falsely advertised discount coupons as time-limited despite being continuously available. From 9 May 2024 to 20 July 2024, Temu ran a KRW 999 promotional campaign involving items such as Nintendo Switch consoles, using exaggerated wording to overstate consumers’ chances of winning or purchasing. Between 21 September 2023 and 2 May 2025, Temu promoted credit and free goods through referral-based campaigns while concealing reward conditions, making them difficult for consumers to identify. Under the E-Commerce Act, Temu failed to display business identity and terms on its cybermall from service launch until 28 March 2024 (website) and 26 April 2025 (mobile app). It also operated without registering as a mail-order business from 20 July 2023 to 18 March 2025. Furthermore, it did not notify users that it was not the contracting party in transactions until the same respective dates. These acts were deemed violations of Articles 3(1) of the Fair Labeling and Advertising Act and Articles 10(1), 12(1), and 20(1) of the E-Commerce Consumer Protection Act, resulting in prohibition orders and administrative sanctions.