South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announced Wednesday that it will formalise and publicly disclose criteria for identifying online shopping platforms that receive frequent consumer complaints, in a bid to improve transparency and strengthen consumer protection.

Under the proposed regulation – titled “Rules on disclosure of online retailers with frequent consumer complaints” – any e-commerce platform that receives 10 or more consumer-related grievance cases in a month through the Korea Consumer Agency or Seoul City government will be flagged as a target for public listing.

The FTC has operated a disclosure system since February 2010, publishing the names, websites, and business addresses of e-commerce platforms with high volumes of complaints on its official website.

However, until now, the selection criteria and procedural guidelines have remained internal. The newly proposed regulation will institutionalise and publicly codify these measures.

Once a platform is identified, it must submit an explanatory report within five business days. Failure to comply will result in its listing as a complaint-prone business. The public listing lasts for six months, but platforms may be removed from the list earlier if all customer disputes are fully resolved.

The FTC plans to collect stakeholder feedback until June 24, after which it will finalise the regulation through a full commission vote.

“This move will enhance public awareness of problematic platforms while improving the consistency and procedural fairness of enforcement,” an FTC official said. The finalised rules are expected to take effect later in 2025.