Law or Coupang? ② Personal Information Including Bank Accounts Must Be Provided to Other Companies for Refunds
When a product purchased and paid for through Coupang has issues, how far can consumers resolve the matter through Coupang? Tracking recalled children's products that the government determined to be hazardous, we found that notifying purchasers of the recall was handled within Coupang, but after that it became "the consumer's responsibility." The legal withdrawal period differed from Coupang's own return standards, and consumers had to receive refunds by providing their bank account numbers to the seller instead of canceling the existing payment. Over three installments, Suwon Ilbo examines how consumer rights guaranteed by the E-Commerce Act actually function within a large platform's system, why money and personal information flow out of the platform during subsequent processing, and how current law stipulates the platform's responsibilities. —Editor's Note
To receive a refund for a recalled product purchased through Coupang, consumers must separately provide the seller outside of Coupang with personal information including their order details and bank account number.
According to Coupang and the Fair Trade Commission on the 22nd, Coupang notified purchasers of children's products targeted for recall by the National Institute of Technology and Quality that product retrieval and refunds should be handled by contacting the seller directly.
When the purchaser contacted the seller, the company said it would retrieve the product and send money directly, requesting Coupang order details including address, contact information, and bank account information.
In this process, the purchaser said they did not receive separate notice from the seller regarding the purposes of collecting and using personal information or the period for which it would be retained.
The purchaser stated, "Refunding a product the government determined to be hazardous should be natural," and added, "I'm trying to get a refund for a product I paid for through Coupang, but Coupang is excluded, and Coupang has created a structure where consumers can only receive refunds by taking out personal information like order details and bank account numbers."
Coupang previously experienced a major personal information breach incident, putting the company's personal information management practices under scrutiny.
Coupang was not in a situation where it didn't know the purchaser's personal information. Coupang directly notified the purchaser of the recall by identifying not only the actual product name and seller, but also the order number and order date.
Article 15 of the Personal Information Protection Act stipulates that when collecting and using personal information with the consent of the information subject, the purposes of collection, items, and retention and usage periods must be disclosed.
The E-Commerce Act contains separate provisions for the refund procedure for withdrawal of offer.
Article 18 of the E-Commerce Act also imposes refund obligations on the "party that received payment from the consumer." In cases of payment by credit card and similar methods, it stipulates that the payment provider must be requested to stop or cancel payment claims or that already-received payment must be refunded.
The law provides for a procedure to return payment through the original payment method when withdrawal of offer occurs, but in this case, rather than canceling the existing payment made through Coupang, the seller was processing the refund by receiving the purchaser's bank account number anew and transferring funds directly.
Coupang possessed consumer and transaction information sufficient to identify the purchaser who bought the recalled product and the relevant order. However, when Coupang transferred the retrieval and refund procedures to the seller, the purchaser was placed in a situation of being asked to provide personal information without notice regarding the purposes of collection or periods for retention and use, outside of Coupang.
Coupang stated only that product retrieval and refunds following the recall are handled by the seller, but provided "no separate official response" regarding why it does not cancel the existing payment, the structure through which additional personal information disclosure occurs, or Coupang's responsibilities under relevant laws.
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