Online Shopping Association, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety sign MOU on online safety management

The Korea Online Shopping Association signed an MOU Thursday with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the Korea TV Home Shopping Association and the Korea Data Home Shopping Association to eradicate the illegal online distribution of food and pharmaceutical products and false or exaggerated advertising.

The agreement is part of a public-private cooperation effort to protect consumers from harm caused by illegal online distribution and misleading advertising, as the online retail environment continues to evolve with advances in technology such as AI.

The MOU centers on three key commitments: swift action to block illegal distribution and false or exaggerated advertising of food and pharmaceutical products; education and public outreach on proper online distribution, labeling and advertising practices; and the promotion of voluntary self-regulation by platform operators.

On the self-regulation front, the parties plan to work with the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on four priorities: establishing reasonable standards for sanctioning sellers, strengthening monitoring capabilities, blocking illegal products through keyword management, and applying technical filtering tools.

Following the signing ceremony, presentations were held on the ministry's progress in online safety management for food and pharmaceutical products, as well as the self-regulation achievements of four major platform operators — Naver, G-Market, Coupang Inc and CJ Olive Young.

"We hope that the government and the private sector will work together so that the exemplary self-regulation efforts of major platform operators can spread across the industry as a whole," said Kim Yong-jae, deputy minister of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

Lawmaker Baek Jong-heon, in congratulatory remarks, said safety management through proper labeling and advertising of food and pharmaceutical products "cannot be resolved by the efforts of either the government or the private sector alone," adding that "the government must set the direction while the private sector strengthens its self-regulation capacity, and both must communicate and cooperate together."

Cho Sung-hyun, chairman of the Korea Online Shopping Association, said the MOU "is meaningful in that it organically combines government oversight with platform self-regulation to create an online retail environment where the public can feel safe," and pledged that the association would "make active efforts to build a safer and more trustworthy online retail market."