A file photo of the Seoul Central District Court building (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Korea Bizwire) — Three major online shopping site operators have been ordered by a South Korean court to pay compensation for discrimination against visually-impaired people.
In a collective suit filed against SSG.com, Lotte Mart and e-Bay Korea by about 960 visually-impaired people, the Seoul Central District Court ruled partially in favor of the visually-handicapped people, ordering the defendants to pay compensation of 100,000 won (US$90.41) to each plaintiff.
The visually-impaired people filed the collective suit back in 2017 claiming that the online shopping malls discriminated against them in light of information usage by making it difficult for them to access and buy goods therein.
The visually-impaired people demanded asked the online stores to pay compensation of 2 million won to each of them.
The total amount of compensation demanded by the visually-handicapped people was 5.7 billion, won but the court ordered the operators to assume responsibility for only 300 million won.
In addition, the court ordered the online shopping malls to launch a service that enables visually-impaired people to obtain shopping information through screen readers within six months from the date of the ruling.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
