Baemin found to have charged highest transaction fees among S. Korean e-commerce platforms

South Korea's Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) identified food delivery app Baedal Minjok, or Baemin, as charging the highest fees to its vendors among the country's e-commerce platforms as it seeks to announce commission rates twice a year.

According to an official of the FSS, when commission rates are finally announced, companies will compete on commission rates, resulting in reasonable fees in the future.

Online vendors will also be gradually less burdened from commission fees, as they will be able to better negotiate with e-commerce platforms.

The FSS unveiled commission rates of nine online e-commerce platform operators that generate transaction volumes exceeding 100 billion won ($77 million) a month.

In terms of transactions made by credit card, Baemin, operated by Woowa Brothers, has been charging the highest commission rates at 1.52 percent to small-sized vendors and a 3 percent rate to mid and large-sized vendors.

South Korea’s leading open market operator, 11th Street, has been imposing a 1.3 percent commission rate for small-sized vendors and 2.9 percent for bigger vendors.

In terms of commission rates for transactions made through digital cash – which customers keep in their virtual wallet on each platform -- Woowa Brothers also charged the highest commission rate of 3 percent, followed by SSG.com with 2.5 percent and GMarket with 2.49 percent.

The commission rates from these online platform operators were found to be four to six times higher than the rates charged by credit card companies, which range between 0.25 and 0.5 percent, the FSS said.

Online commercial platforms pay other commission fees in addition to fees involving transactions made by credit cards and easy pay.