InterPark fined for misleading ads

By Park Si-soo

The country’s four biggest online bookstores have been fined for unfairly including unpopular books in their recommended titles lists after receiving money from their publishers, the fair trade regulator said Monday.

The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said the violators of the Electronic Commerce Act are InterPark (book.interpark.com), Kyobo Bookstore (www.kyobobook.co.kr), Aladin (www.aladin.co.kr) and YES24 (www.yes24.com). The combined sales of the four account for more than 70 percent of the country’s online book retailer industry.

The FTC slapped a 10 million won ($9,200) fine on InterPark and a 5 million fine on each of the other three. The regulator also ordered them to run a letter of apology whose size takes up one-sixth of a computer screen on the front page of their websites for the next five days.

“The companies have added titles of unpopular books to recommended book lists in return for receiving sums ranging from 500,000 to 2.5 million won from publishers, which is illegal,” an FTC spokesman said.

He said this was the first crackdown of this kind and the FTC is widening its investigation into dozens of other online bookstores after the regulator was tipped off that such an illegal practice to increase sales is widespread amid fiercer competition in the online book market.

“We are closely monitoring some 30 online bookstores to determine whether or not they have committed similar violations,” he said. “Bookstores are required to stay independent in selecting books to be included in their recommended lists. If they provide a promotional list for books published by their sponsors, it should have a notification attached explaining the paid nature of the list.”

Korea’s first online bookstore was launched in 1997. The industry started growing at an explosive rate in 2002 after the government allowed online stores to sell books at discounted prices. The industry faced heated competition in 2008 as a growing number of online shopping malls add books to their product lineups.

As of 2011, nearly 37 percent of books were sold through online bookstores, according to the Korea Publishers Society.