Market Kurly began offering early morning delivery services in 2015. (image: Market Kurly)
SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s antitrust chief gave a positive assessment of the win-win system with suppliers led by online grocery shopping platform Market Kurly.
Joh Sung-wook, the chairperson of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), met Thursday with representatives of Market Kurly and its suppliers at the company’s logistics center in Seoul’s Songpa District.
“Market Kurly did not pass on an inventory burden to suppliers through a 100 percent direct purchase and no return principle, but used big data and lowered the ratio of discarded products by predicting sales volume.” said Joh.
“In order to spread the culture of win-win cooperation in the distribution market, we need to find such cases of co-prosperity by distribution channels and publicize them in the market,” Joh added.
Furthermore, she also promised FTC efforts to eradicate unfair practices in the retail industry.
Joh pointed out that “the recent intensifying competition has led to a growing temptation to mislead distribution companies to pass the burden on to their suppliers, who are at the top of the trading ladder.”
“We will actively respond to unfair business practices by distribution companies and continuously examine whether or not new laws and systems are insufficient in the public’s eye,” she said.
In the same vein, the FTC is planning to establish and promote standards for online evaluation so that the ‘system for signing fair trade agreements’, which is currently operated mainly by offline businesses including department stores, duty-free stores, discount stores, and convenience stores, is also introduced for online distribution channels.
Ashley Song (ashley@koreabizwire.com)
