Last week, an on-site inspection of the AliExpress office in Jung-gu, Seoul
Consumer complaints continue to increase… Suspected violation of consumer protection obligations
The Fair Trade Commission launched an on-site investigation into Chinese e-commerce platform AliExpress, claiming that it violated its consumer protection obligations.
According to the industry on the 6th, the Fair Trade Commission sent an investigator to the Ali Korea office in Jung-gu, Seoul last week to secure data related to consumer dispute response.
Ali Korea is a domestic corporation recently established by AliExpress. The Fair Trade Commission is said to be investigating whether AliExpress did not fulfill its consumer protection obligations stipulated in the Electronic Commerce Act.
Meanwhile, while AliExpress’s number of users is rapidly increasing, it has been pointed out that its response to consumer complaints is insufficient.
According to WiseApp·Retail·Goods, an app and retail analysis service, the number of AliExpress app users as of last month reached an all-time high of 8.18 million, a 130% increase from the same period last year (3.55 million).
However, consumer complaints also increased rapidly in proportion to the number of users. Last year, the number of consumer complaints related to AliExpress filed with the Consumer Federation of Korea was 465, a five-fold increase compared to the previous year (93 cases).
At a government audit held in October last year, criticism was raised about ‘counterfeit products’ being sold on AliExpress.
At the time, Fair Trade Commission Chairman Han Ki-jeong said, “We will review the investigation from the perspective of unfair practices and, if necessary, consider a temporary suspension order.”
Then, Ray Jang, CEO of AliExpress Korea, announced in December last year that he would invest a total of 10 billion won over three years to strengthen domestic companies’ intellectual property rights (IP) and customer protection.
Since then, AliExpress has been steadily expanding its customer center staff to calm consumer complaints.
However, some are of the opinion that the consumer protection policies implemented by AliExpress, such as expanding customer service center staff, are less effective. This is because consumer complaints continue to increase despite AliExpress’ response.
An official in the e-commerce industry said, “Simply increasing the number of customer center staff to resolve customer complaints is close to a ‘show-and-tell response.’” He added, “Only by having an infrastructure and work system tailored to domestic consumers will we be able to solve consumer-related problems in the long term.” He said.
AliExpress said, “AliExpress is doing its best to maintain cooperation with the Fair Trade Commission and will comply with all relevant laws and regulations in Korea for the best interests of our stakeholders and consumers.”
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.