Coupang to sue civic group for allegedly spreading false information

The logo of local e-commerce giant Coupang is seen outside its headquarters in southern Seoul in this photo taken in 2021. Korea Times file

By Baek Byung-yeul

• Published Aug 30, 2022 5:44 PM KST
• Updated Aug 31, 2022 3:56 PM KST

By Baek Byung-yeul

Coupang said Tuesday that it will hold civic group People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD) legally responsible for allegedly spreading false information concerning the e-commerce company.

According to Coupang, PSPD distorted an audit report of its subsidiary, CPLB, during a press conference the civic group held Tuesday.

“At the conference, PSPD claimed that Coupang charges sellers a commission fee of around 31.2 percent, combining a basic fee of 4 percent to 10.8 percent with an advertising fee, while we are unfairly supporting our subsidiary CPLB with a low commission of 2.55 percent,” Coupang said in a statement.

The e-commerce company said PSPD's claim “misunderstands its way of business transaction and spreads false claims.”

“Sellers who sell their goods directly to Coupang do not pay a brokerage commission fee to us. CPLB, like most other companies, sells its products directly to us, so it does not pay brokerage commission fees,” the company said.

Coupang further mentioned that the 2.55 percent that PSPD claimed that the company was offering to CPLB to support the subsidiary unfairly was not a commission fee, but an outsourced service fee spent by CPLB.

“This can be clearly confirmed through CPLB's audit report. PSPD is claiming that Coupang is unfairly supporting CPLB by calling the outsourced service fee a commission fee,” the company said.

In addition, Coupang said that sellers that pay the 31.2-percent fees to the e-commerce company ― which PSPD said are only limited to companies that inked special contracts ― account for only 0.9 percent of Coupang's total transactions.