Choi Seung-jun (38), an office worker, has lived in the fun of watching Netflix after work all year long. Since March, I signed up for’Standard Membership’ and used it with an automatic debit of 12,000 won each month. It is difficult to find a movie theater in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus infection (Corona 19). Then, I thought I fell so badly, so I applied for service termination in December last year. However, Netflix explained, “If you cancel due to the customer’s simple change of mind, we cannot refund the 1 month’s worth of automatic payment already.” Choi explained, “I never used Netflix in December,” but it was useless.
Fair Trade Commission, Corrective Action on OTT Unfair Terms and Conditions
Including Wave Teabing Season Watcher Google
Get rid of penalties and nail cash compensation
In the future, it is expected that Choi will be able to get a refund from Netflix. The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 27th that it has corrected the unfair terms and conditions of six domestic online video (OTT) service providers, including Netflix, Wave, Teabing, Season, Watcher, and Google (YouTube). In the case of Netflix, as of the end of last year, only paid subscribers amounted to 7.58 million. The FTC has sanctioned the’GapJil’ of OTT service companies whose subscribers have increased dramatically due to Corona 19’Zipcock’.
Specifically, in the case of Netflix, Season, and Watcha, the issue of non-refundable provisions was made in case of intermediate termination. The company did not provide a refund even if the user terminated the service in the middle, and made it mandatory to use the remaining period within the payment cycle (usually one month). Even if the service was not used or there was a reason attributable to the business operator, they did not look at it. However, in the revised terms and conditions, it is possible to receive a refund if canceled within 7 days from the payment date.
The unfair penalty provision was also corrected. In the past, when refunding the season, the entire remaining period was charged as a penalty, and Wave and Teabing required 10% of the remaining period as a penalty. In the revised terms and conditions, refunds were made without penalty. In addition, a provision that allows the company to change the rate without prior notice (Google YouTube Premium, Watcha) or a provision that does not in principle provide cash compensation for refunds, or prevents refunds of cyber money received as a gift or charged TV points (Wave · Teabing · Season · Watcher) has also been modified or deleted.
Hwang Yun-hwan, head of the Fair Trade Commission’s terms and conditions review section, said, “The OTT service is spreading unfair types of transactions that do not comply with the minimum refund standard. We will continue to check unfair terms and conditions to ensure consumer rights.”
Sejong = Reporter Kihwan Kim [email protected]