Over 2,900 consumer complaints left unresolved as businesses dodge contact, ignore agency

More than 2,900 consumer complaints went unresolved over the past three years and eight months because sellers disappeared or cut off contact without justification, data released Monday showed.

According to documents submitted to Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Yu Dong-su of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee by the Korea Consumer Agency, 2,909 cases filed between 2023 and August this year could not be resolved because businesses — while still registered and operating — went missing, cut off contact, refused to respond or absconded with payments.

By year, the figures stood at 639 cases in 2023, 983 in 2024, 774 in 2025 and 513 through August this year. The sharp rise in 2024 was driven in part by a single online retailer that alone generated roughly 100 complaints.

Broken down by complaint type, failure to fulfill a contract was the most common issue, accounting for 1,071 cases, followed by contract cancellation and penalty disputes at 787 cases and apartment subscription withdrawals at 400 cases. By industry, cultural and entertainment services topped the list at 724 cases, followed by clothing and textile goods at 319, land, buildings and facilities at 193, and information and communications services at 154.

Under current law, a business that retains its registration without formally closing is classified as an active operator. Because the Korea Consumer Agency's complaint-resolution process relies on voluntary cooperation from businesses, the agency has no legal means to compel a response from one that has gone silent.

At the complaint-resolution stage alone, 2,909 cases were blocked as unprocessable. Even attempts to escalate to dispute mediation failed, with 27 additional cases dismissed or declared unprocessable before proceedings could begin. The current system, critics say, has become a tool that bad-faith operators exploit to evade legal accountability simply by refusing to engage.

"Deliberately blocking consumers from exercising their rights while maintaining the outward appearance of a registered business victimizes them twice over," Yu said. "The limits of a complaint-resolution system that depends entirely on voluntary business cooperation are being exploited by bad-faith operators as a convenient way to escape legal responsibility."

Yu added that leaving unaddressed the regulatory gap between formally registered businesses and those that effectively refuse to cooperate would undermine the credibility of the entire consumer protection framework. He called for the introduction of separate tracking indicators for businesses that go silent or refuse to respond, intensified monitoring of repeat offenders, and administrative sanctions with real teeth.