Five business groups, including the Korea Franchise Industry Association, have called on Coupang to compensate small business owners for losses caused by a major service outage.
In a joint statement on the 12th, the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, the Korea Merchants Association, the Korea Foodservice Industry Association, the Korea Franchise Industry Association and the National Cafe Owners Cooperative said Coupang should transparently calculate the operating losses small business owners suffered from the access failure and swiftly draw up substantive, comprehensive compensation measures.
The groups said the access failure, which hit apps and websites for Coupang and Coupang Eats for about two hours starting at midnight on the 9th, disrupted business for merchants selling on the platform and for restaurant owners using its delivery service. They also noted that an error in the logistics center computer network compounded the problem, causing delivery delays.
The five groups demanded that Coupang draw up a comprehensive compensation plan covering operating losses, advertising fee refunds and opportunity costs; disclose the exact cause of the failure and the scope of the damage while establishing an emergency response manual; and strengthen consultation with small business owners.
The groups criticized Coupang's response to the outage as inadequate. "Without prompt updates for merchants on the platform or substantive steps to minimize the damage, the company sent out nothing but face-saving apology messages," they said. "It must not turn away from the losses suffered by restaurant workers who depend on late-night delivery sales and by online merchants who paid for advertising but got no chance to sell."
The groups also pointed to problems in the routine operation of Coupang Eats. They said instability in the app linked to in-store point-of-sale (POS) systems had caused settlement errors or left owners unable to track sales properly, and that reaching the customer service center had been difficult.
"Coupang's growth was possible because small business owners sacrificed by absorbing the burden of commissions," the groups said. "Whenever a system failure occurs, an unfair pattern repeats in which merchants on the platform have to shoulder the damage and the pain in full." They added that Coupang should show a sense of responsibility befitting its dominant position as a platform, and that if it continued with a lukewarm response and face-saving apologies, they would use every available means to respond forcefully.
In response, Coupang Eats said it apologized again for the inconvenience caused by the temporary service error that occurred in the early hours of the 9th, between 12:30 a.m. and 2:31 a.m., and that it would do its utmost to manage its systems and prevent a recurrence so it can provide more stable service.
Coupang Eats also said it had immediately notified merchants of a plan to compensate them with 100% of the settlement amount they would have received from a normal sale for orders that were canceled after being accepted during the outage, and that the plan is being carried out with payments processed automatically without a separate application. It added that advertising costs for orders canceled during the outage will not be charged to merchants.
Coupang had earlier said it would assess the scale of the damage to restaurants on the platform and compensate them for orders canceled after acceptance. Customers whose orders were canceled because of the system error will receive 5,000 won in Coupang Cash. For Coupang Eats, customers whose orders were not properly received will get coupons worth 1,000 won, while those whose orders were canceled after payment was completed will receive coupons worth 3,000 won. Delivery riders will be paid 1,000 won if a record of their arrival at the store is confirmed, and the full delivery fee if an order was canceled after they had picked up the food.