- Discussions on transparency measures for fees and advertising costs, improvement of unfair practices, and establishment of a permanent council to create a foundation for win-win cooperation.
- Public delivery app ‘Meokkebi’ also participated in this meeting and proposed measures to promote public delivery apps.
The third meeting of the “Delivery Platform-Merchant Win-Win Council” (hereinafter referred to as the “Win-Win Council,” chaired by Professor Lee Jeong-hee) was held on Tuesday, August 27, at 2:30 PM.
At today's meeting, participants' opinions were actively sought, based on the discussion topics selected in the previous meeting. In particular, discussions were held on ▲ enhancing transparency in fees and advertising costs, ▲ sharing order data including customer information, ▲ improving unfair practices of delivery platforms, and ▲ establishing a permanent council to create a foundation for win-win cooperation. Additionally, the public delivery app 'Meokkebi' participated for the first time and presented on ▲ measures to promote public delivery apps.
First, the merchants who have joined the delivery platforms (hereinafter referred to as ‘merchants’) argued that information regarding fees and advertising costs should be provided more transparently. They raised issues such as the current practice of most platform companies not disclosing the criteria for calculating fees and advertising costs, and the fact that when platform companies offer ‘free delivery’ benefits to consumers, merchants often bear the delivery costs without this being communicated to the consumers. Furthermore, small business owners find it challenging to manage regular customers due to the difficulty in accessing customer order data. They also expressed concerns that recent unfair practices by delivery platforms* have made it harder for them to freely choose services, resulting in higher costs.
- Such practices include encouraging consumers to choose platform-delivered orders over orders directly delivered by the store, and requiring merchants to offer the same or better terms than those provided on other delivery platforms.
On the other hand, the merchants proposed the formation of a permanent council and the conduct of a fact-finding survey to ensure continuous exchange of opinions between delivery platforms and merchants even after the Win-Win Council concludes its activities this year, thereby establishing a sustainable foundation for cooperation.
During this third meeting, the delivery platforms’ views on the merchants’ proposals were heard, and participants freely discussed desirable directions for improvement. As a result, there was a shared recognition of the need for improvement on some topics, such as data sharing, and specific measures will be further developed and finalized in the future.
Meanwhile, following Shinhan Bank’s presentation on promoting public delivery apps at the second meeting, Meokkebi gave a presentation this time. Meokkebi, a public delivery app operating in 11 municipalities with a commission rate of 1.5%, requested the government to seek realistic support measures for the growth of public delivery apps. Additionally, given that delivery apps have now become essential platforms in the daily lives of citizens, Meokkebi asked for institutional support to establish a healthy competitive system in the delivery platform market.
At the next, fourth meeting, opinions from delivery platforms and merchants will be heard on topics such as ▲ measures to reduce the burden of intermediary and payment fees, and ▲ the creation of incentives for participating in cooperative initiatives. The government plans to actively support the productive discussions within the Win-Win Council to ensure that reasonable and cooperative measures are developed.