Daily Union (Monthly, Korea News Newspaper) Ryu seungwoo Journalist | The FTC (Chairman Han Ki-jung) announced that it plans to file a complaint with the prosecution against "Resis," which sold products that combine accumulated travel products and home appliances, for unregistered business activities and false or exaggerated advertisements.
This is the first sanction since the prepaid installment transaction law was revised.
According to the FTC, Resis received membership fees of about 60,000 to 90,000 won per month and sold
travel products such as resort special accommodation tickets available in the future.
It signed 383 prepaid installment contracts from June to December 2021 by combining and selling home
appliances (laptops, etc.). As of September 2023, 275 contracts were still in place.
The problem is that even though the law was revised in February 2022 to include travel products in prepaid
installment contracts, Resis ignored this fact and continued to operate.
According to the revised installment transaction law, Resis should have registered as a prepaid installment
transaction company in Seoul with the requirements of 1.5 billion won in capital, but it did not comply and
continued to operate unregistered.
According to Article 18 (1) of the Installment Transactions Act, it is illegal to operate a prepaid installment
transaction business without registration, In response, the FTC imposed a corrective order and decided to file a complaint with the prosecution.
This is the first time that accumulated travel products have been included in the list of prepaid installment
transactions since the Enforcement Decree of the Installment Transaction Act was revised.
The FTC warned that accumulated travel product vendors will continue to comply with the law and continue
to monitor thoroughly to prevent similar cases from repeating themselves.
With this incident, the industry that sells accumulated travel products is more likely to be subject to massive sanctions.
Products that provide services after collecting funds from consumers in the long term have entered the FTC's monitoring network.
Resis advertised home appliances combined with accumulated travel packages as if they were offering them
for free. However, this was not the case.
The FTC judged Resis's advertisement as a false or exaggerated advertisement in violation of Article 3 (1) 1 of the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising (Display Advertising Act).
In a separate installment contract, Resis exaggerated and advertised home appliances that had to be purchased as if they could be received free of charge just by purchasing a travel package,
The Fair Trade Commission pointed out that this is a serious act that hinders the rational purchase choice of
ordinary consumers and undermines the fair trade order.
The FTC ordered Resis to stop the advertising immediately, while also imposing a publication order to correct the misconception that had already spread.
A FTC official explained, "This measure is not just a corrective order, but it shows (the FTC's) willingness to
correct misinformation in public so that consumers can be corrected."
In the wake of this incident, the FTC plans to thoroughly monitor violations of the law in the prepaid
installment transaction market.
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