The Korea Fair Trade Commission’s Korean-language release, republished by the South Korean government, says its Oct. 29 decision sets corrective orders and preliminary fines of 331.1 billion won for Woowa Brothers (Baemin) and 300.8 billion won for Coupang (Coupang Eats). Yonhap and Reuters independently report the decision and the core MFN findings; Yonhap gives the 2025 market shares by order value. Findings and consumer-price effects are attributed to the regulator, not framed as a court judgment. The amounts are described as preliminary; this report does not imply they were paid or that appeals have been filed. A bounded search of current KFTC and publisher event-photo material found photographs offered under rights-controlled terms, with no open reuse permission established. The two images are real South Korean archive context photographs, not pictures of the 2026 investigation or announcement: Baemin rider by 마라아탕 (Oct. 9, 2024), CC0 1.0; delivery rider in Geoje by Lbking (Apr. 16, 2010), CC BY 3.0. The original JPEGs, file-page and license URLs are retained in public/newsroom/source-originals/korea-delivery-platforms-20261109. The Baemin image was converted to 600 × 390 WebP; the Geoje image was proportionally resized from 3,376 × 1,601 to 1,800 × 854 WebP. Both were converted at quality 86 and stripped of metadata; neither was cropped or retouched. The inline derivative is distributed under CC BY 3.0 with attribution.
The regulator’s findings and the provisional sums
South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission said on Monday, Nov. 9, that it had decided on Oct. 29 to impose corrective orders and preliminary fines totaling 631.9 billion won on the operators of the country’s two largest food-delivery apps. It set 331.1 billion won for Woowa Brothers, which runs Baemin, and 300.8 billion won for Coupang, which runs Coupang Eats.
The Commission said both companies abused their market positions by restricting the terms restaurants could offer on competing apps. The amounts remain preliminary in the regulator’s announcement. These are administrative competition findings, not criminal convictions, and the announcement does not establish that the fines have been paid.
How platform parity can limit price competition
The common issue was a most-favoured-nation, or MFN, requirement: restaurants had to give each app terms at least as good as those offered on rivals. Although such a rule can be presented as keeping one platform’s customers from paying more, the Commission said it stopped merchants from offering lower prices or discounts on competing services.
The regulator said the restrictions also weakened rivals that might charge restaurants lower commissions. Baemin accounted for 58.45 percent of South Korea’s delivery-app market by order value in 2025 and Coupang Eats for 34.44 percent, according to Yonhap. Together they represented 92.89 percent by that measure; it is a share of order value, not a count of users.
Membership benefits were tied to restaurant terms
According to the Commission’s account, Coupang applied six conditions—including menu prices, minimum order amounts, discounts and customer delivery fees—from July 2023 through January 2026. Restaurants that did not comply could lose “Wow restaurant” status, which was linked to benefits for Coupang Wow members.
Baemin applied three comparable conditions from May 2024 through October 2025, the Commission said. Non-compliant restaurants could be excluded from Baemin Club delivery discounts. The regulator said those consequences gave restaurants little practical room to set different terms across apps.
Baemin faces additional orders over delivery and estimates
The Commission’s findings against Baemin went beyond price parity. It said the company pressured restaurants to move from its Market Place model, in which restaurants arrange delivery, to Own Delivery, in which Baemin handles delivery as well as the order. The regulator said this shifted businesses toward a more expensive service and reduced activity for independent delivery operators.
The Commission also found that Baemin misled customers about estimated delivery times. It assigned 155.4 billion won of Baemin’s preliminary total to the alleged forced switch and 15.4 billion won to the time-estimate issue, with 160.2 billion won tied to MFN requirements. The release describes remedies including stopping the practices and resetting certain Market Place commission terms.
What the announcement does—and does not—establish
The decision puts the platforms’ contract practices and delivery-app market under close regulatory scrutiny. It does not establish that restaurant prices will now fall: the Commission’s stated case is that the challenged terms restricted how merchants could compete across apps, and subsequent outcomes depend on the corrective measures and the companies’ responses.
The Competition Commission release also refers to a separate Coupang contract term on commission charged against restaurant-funded discounts. A separate allegation concerning bundled delivery benefits was returned for re-examination, rather than decided as a violation. Those issues should not be conflated with the central preliminary fines.
Sources
4 references
- Korea Fair Trade Commission, republished by Korea.krDelivery-app unfair practices sanctionedPrimary Korean-language press release: decision date, provisional fine amounts and breakdown, corrective orders, and the Commission’s competition findings. · 2026-11-09
- Yonhap News AgencyFTC to fine Baemin 331 bln won, Coupang 300 bln won for unfair practicesIndependent report of the Commission’s announcement, the platforms’ requirements and 2025 market shares by order value. · 2026-11-09
- ReutersSouth Korea fines Coupang $220 million for abusing dominance in food delivery marketIndependent reporting on the Coupang fine, merchant conditions and the regulator’s competition rationale; Reuters event photos are separately licensed. · 2026-11-09
- The Korea Herald BusinessBaemin, Coupang Eats hit with combined W631.9b in fines over price interferenceIndependent Korean reporting on the preliminary fine breakdown, Baemin delivery-conversion findings and the separate Coupang contract and tying issues. · 2026-11-09
