South Korea’s Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) set a provisional 300.8 billion won ($220.59 million) fine for Coupang over merchant-pricing rules on Coupang Eats, NewsPim reported.
NewsPim said the decision was made Oct. 29 and announced Nov. 9. Reuters reported the KFTC said Coupang required merchants to offer on Coupang Eats terms at least as favorable as those available through competing delivery apps. The commission said the requirements curtailed merchants’ power to choose prices and restricted competition among platforms, Reuters reported.
NewsPim reported that the policy, in force from July 2023 to January 2026, covered six merchant terms, from menu prices and order minimums to discounts and delivery costs billed to customers. Merchants who failed to comply risked losing access to Wow stores, a program offering benefits such as free delivery, the outlet said.
For merchants removed from the program, NewsPim said average daily sales were 220,000 won before losing status and 90,000 won afterward.
The KFTC also decided to impose a provisional 331.1 billion won fine on Woowa Brothers, which operates Baedal Minjok (Baemin), NewsPim reported. That brings the provisional total for both companies to 631.9 billion won. NewsPim said the companies also received corrective orders.
In an earlier case, the KFTC rejected consent-decree applications from Coupang and Woowa Brothers on June 18 over allegations that the companies required merchants to give each platform terms at least as favorable as those offered by competitors, according to a KFTC release hosted by the Korea Development Institute. The agency said it would continue the case and later determine whether the conduct broke the law and merited sanctions. Its broader June account also cited allegations that Baemin favored its own delivery service and that delivery-time advertising was misleading.
