Naver consumer dispute damage remedy rate at 83.6%, committee says

Naver's Users Protection and Self-Regulation Committee said on October 6 that 83.6% of consumer disputes filed with Naver last year received damage relief, after it analysed all of the consumer dispute data the platform received. The committee said the researchers cross-checked Naver's dispute data with external consumer counselling data. Newsis carried the 83.6% figure in its headline. [ 1 , 2 , 3 ]

The study was performed by Choi Nan-seol-hun of Yonsei University, Lee Dae-ho of Sungkyunkwan University and Chung Ji-yeon, secretary-general of the Korea Consumer Federation. Maeil Business reported that the remedy rate was based on the standard of external consumer counselling institutions, using the remedy rate for Naver-related consultations filed with the Seoul Electronic Commerce Center. The researchers concluded that the dispute mediation centre Naver has operated since 2017 has substantively contributed to resolving disputes between sellers and consumers, and Naver said the analysis confirmed that “the damage relief function is working appropriately”. [ 2 , 3 ]

The researchers assessed positively the prevention measures Naver introduced last year. Maeil Business reported that Naver strengthened sanctions in June so that a seller unreachable for more than one business day can be suspended on a buyer's report alone, after which unreachable-seller disputes fell 32% in the second half of last year from the same period a year earlier. In October Naver introduced automatic penalties for sellers who enter a tracking number without shipping the product, and in December it introduced sanctions for sellers who register a domestic shipment origin and then switch to overseas delivery. Naver uses 460 internal guidelines as dispute resolution standards. Maeil Business also reported that among platform-related consultations filed with the 1372 Consumer Counselling Center last year, Naver-related consultations were the second most numerous by business, and that researchers said efforts should widen from after-the-fact relief to reducing disputes themselves. [ 2 , 3 ]

According to the report, disputes were mainly related to sellers becoming unreachable or refusing buyers' requests. Unreachable-seller cases were closed relatively quickly through measures such as forced refunds, while refusal cases involved longer negotiation over responsibility, evidence and costs and showed both longer handling times and a higher unresolved rate; disputes over payments of 300,000 won or more and over high-value durable goods were also harder to resolve. The researchers said the difficulty varied with the transaction amount, the product category and the filing channel, and that factors such as a simple change of mind, whether the product had been opened, whether collection was completed, whether the seller responded and whether evidence was secured interacted in combination. [ 2 , 3 ]

The researchers proposed a new classification framework dividing disputes by seller response, buyer request, dispute cause and detailed points of contention, with causes and issues marked in multiple categories. Maeil Business reported that under the new system a metric for predicting whether a dispute would be resolved was about 33% higher than before. The researchers recommended combining this with AI to build a “consumer dispute early-warning system” that grades risk at the intake stage, processing frequent low-risk disputes through a standard procedure and managing high-risk ones intensively, and called for regular cross-validation and expanded cooperation with external consumer counselling centres. They noted that Naver, as an intermediary platform rather than a seller, faces structural constraints in dispute resolution, but said the data it has accumulated can be used to balance consumer protection and seller management. [ 2 , 3 ]

Choi Nan-seol-hun said Naver's dispute mediation function “was playing a substantive role in resolving consumer disputes” and that broader cooperation with external bodies based on the accumulated data could become a basis for developing a cooperative self-regulation model. Kwon Heon-young, chair of Naver's self-regulation committee and a Korea University professor, said it was significant that the committee had examined and analysed the full dispute data itself, and said its work to reduce disputes and protect users would continue. Naver CRO Yoo Bong-seok said the company would keep reflecting the committee's improvement recommendations and work to provide a better consumer and user experience. [ 2 , 3 ]