Rise in Consumer Damage at Online Shopping Malls and Auctions

There are a growing number of complaints surrounding e-commerce.

According to the Korea Consumer Protection Board(http://www.cpb.or.kr) on Feb. 18, it received 10,760 cases of consumers’ calling for advice regarding e-commerce last year, twice of the figure of 2001. In 1,045 cases of them, up 66.4 % from the precious year, consumers asked for relief measure for damages, not satisfied with the consultation.

To break down the cases, complaints for on-line shopping malls account for 74.3 %, followed by Internet content such as online games with 18.9% and online auctions with 6.8%.

Compared with the figures of the previous year, damages surrounding online shopping malls and online auctions increased 39.3% and 34% respectively last year. As for the area of Internet content, the complaints rose as high as 1000% from 18 cases in 2001 to 198 last year.

Among those asking for damage relief, 34.4% were about information communications service; 13.5% about information communications devices; 10.1% about clothes and accessories; and 5.9% about cultural products. To break down by damage form, "rejection of the cancellation of a contract or not returning the money" accounts for 28.6%, "procrastination in delivery or not delivering products" for 19.6%, and "defects in products" for 15.7%.

Mr. Moon Tae-hyun, head of cyber transaction investigation team with the consumer protection agency, said, "In order to reduce consumer damages in e-commerce, Internet-based companies should improve their services, for example, by putting an inspection system in place on their own."

Heon-Jin Lee mungchii@donga.com