A company that left thousands of false reviews on online shopping malls using part-time jobs has been fined.
The Fair Trade Commission plans to impose a fine of 140 million won along with a correction order for small home appliance brands, Oae, for violating the Labeling and Advertising Act.
It was investigated that Oha conducted so-called 'empty box marketing' through an advertising agency while selling products to internet shopping malls.
Empty box marketing is a method in which a part-time student purchases a product from an online shopping mall with a personal account, receives an empty box that does not contain the product, and receives a refund for the purchase price and writes a false review.
It is said that the reason why they use an empty box like this is that the operator can write a review only by entering the courier invoice number in the shopping mall.
They were found to have created more than 3,700 false reviews in this way in a year from May 2020.
Consumers who saw a number of false reviews raised concerns about the fact that the product had already been sold a lot and there was a risk of mistaking the product as being of excellent quality and performance, and the Fair Trade Commission took action.