South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission hit Coupang with a provisional Won300.8bn ($222.8m) administrative fine for forcing restaurant merchants into parity agreements on its food delivery platform.
The penalty lands alongside a provisional Won331.1bn fine on market leader Woowa Brothers, operator of Baedal Minjok, bringing combined regulatory penalties across the country’s two dominant food delivery services to Won631.9bn.
Regulators found that Coupang abused its dominant market position by forcing restaurants to offer commercial terms equal to or better than those listed on rival platforms. The company monitored six operating areas, including menu pricing and operating hours, between July 2023 and January 2026. Restaurants that failed to comply lost their status as designated WOW Stores.
The WOW Store Squeeze
Losing that designation carried direct commercial consequences. Coupang had restricted delivery perks for paying WOW Membership subscribers exclusively to transactions completed at WOW Stores starting in April 2023.
The commission reported that 57,907 merchants were stripped of their WOW Store status at least once for non-compliance. The pressure worked swiftly. The share of compliant WOW Stores surged from 13.49 per cent in July 2023 to 93.78 per cent by October 2025.
Investigators concluded that these most-favoured-nation clauses breached the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act by stifling commission competition between delivery apps. Platforms could raise take rates without fearing that restaurants would offer lower prices elsewhere to steer diners toward cheaper channels.
Commission Calculations Under Fire
The regulator also took aim at how Coupang calculated platform fees. Under the Coupang Eats Merchant Pricing Policy, the service calculated order amounts using pre-discount retail prices. That formula forced food vendors to pay platform commissions on price cuts they funded out of their own pockets.
The watchdog ordered Coupang to revise the fee calculation clause within 60 days of receiving the corrective order. Additional corrective remedies cover strict prohibition of parity demands, public notification, record deletion, regular compliance reporting, and mandatory staff education.
The watchdog also ordered a re-examination into coercive transaction conduct allegations. Differing interpretations in the examiner’s report regarding principal and secondary products had constrained deliberations during the initial hearings.
A Duopoly Under Regulatory Siege
Coupang and Woowa Brothers control more than 90 per cent of South Korea’s food delivery sector. The regulator argued that both operators abused their bargaining power by imposing abnormal operational terms that squeezed vendor margins and elevated consumer dining costs.
Woowa Brothers faced penalties for similar parity demands enforced between May 2024 and October 2025, alongside sanctions for deceptively advertising estimated delivery times and coercing vendors onto its proprietary delivery fleet. For restaurant brands and food operators, the crackdown provides immediate use to differentiate pricing strategies across digital storefronts without risking algorithmic demotion.
The antitrust action reflects a broader campaign by Seoul against platform lock-in tactics. Coupang entered the delivery sector in May 2019, initially offsetting higher commission rates against faster fulfillment before deploying membership bundling to capture market share from Baemin.
Legal Battles Loom
The sanction arrives while Coupang remains locked in legal battles over domestic regulatory scrutiny. Earlier this year, the US-listed firm received a record Won624.68bn fine over a customer data leak, a ruling it continues to challenge in court.
Coupang disputed the delivery findings immediately. The company maintained that its entry into delivery had injected competition into a market where an entrenched incumbent once held an 80 per cent share, asserting that its business practices aimed to lower consumer friction.
Coupang Eats will carefully review the final ruling and fully present its position through appropriate legal procedures.
The Fair Trade Commission will fix the final fine amounts before issuing its written decision, while Coupang prepares its courtroom challenge and faces the 60-day deadline to overhaul merchant discount fee calculations.
