Korea's e-commerce rules bite before your first sale: you register as a mail-order seller, honor a 7-day return window, and disclose your identity on every listing.
- Mail-order registration — required with the Fair Trade Commission before you sell
- 7-day withdrawal right — full refund, no reason needed, from date of receipt
- Seller disclosure — name, address, and registration number visible on every listing
Skip one and SmartStore, Coupang, or the FTC can suspend you.
Every foreign brand studying Korea entry reads about Naver and SmartStore first. Almost nobody reads the compliance layer sitting underneath both, until a listing gets pulled.
That layer is the Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, enforced by Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC). It governs registration, disclosure, and returns — whether you're new to Korea or already live on a marketplace.
Do you need to register as a mail-order seller in Korea?
Yes — almost every business selling goods or services online in Korea must register as a mail-order business (통신판매업) with the Fair Trade Commission before it sells. The category covers websites, apps, and marketplace storefronts alike.
Registration is filed with the FTC or your local district office and ties to your Korean business registration number, so it usually follows your entity setup rather than replacing it.
There's a narrow exemption. Sellers with fewer than 50 transactions in the prior year, or those registered as a simplified VAT taxpayer, don't have to file, per the FTC's official exemption notice.
Most brands selling at any real volume clear the 50-transaction exemption within weeks. Treat registration as a launch-week task, not an optional one.
Marketplaces check for this before they'll activate a storefront. Naver SmartStore and Coupang both ask for your registration number during onboarding, so skipping it stalls your launch before it starts.
How long do Korean shoppers have to return an order?
Korean shoppers can cancel and get a full refund within seven days of receiving the goods, no reason required. That withdrawal right runs from Article 17 of the E-Commerce Act, per the Korea Consumer Agency's official translation.
The window stretches further when the seller is at fault. If the product doesn't match what you advertised, the cancellation right extends to three months from delivery.
There are limited exceptions — goods the customer damaged, consumed, or that lose value simply from being opened for use. But the default assumption favors the buyer, and Korean shoppers know it.
Build the 7-day window into your customer-service SLA now, not after your first dispute. A fast, no-argument refund inside that window protects your marketplace rating far more than it costs you.
This is stricter than most Western return policies, and it applies regardless of what your own terms of service say.
Who pays for return shipping?
The buyer pays return shipping for an ordinary change-of-mind cancellation, but the seller covers it when the goods are defective or don't match the listing. This split comes straight from the E-Commerce Act.
That distinction matters for your listings. If your product photos, specs, or claims overstate reality, every return on that basis shifts shipping cost — and the burden of proof — onto you.
Sellers who accurately photograph and describe products keep their return economics predictable. Sellers who over-promise absorb both the refund and the shipping cost on every mismatch.
| Rule | What it requires | Threshold / window | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mail-order registration | Register before selling online | Exempt under 50 transactions/yr | FTC notice, via law.go.kr |
| Withdrawal right | Full refund, any reason | 7 days from receipt | E-Commerce Act Art. 17 |
| Misrepresented goods | Extended cancellation right | 3 months from receipt | E-Commerce Act Art. 17 |
| Return shipping cost | Buyer pays; seller pays if defective | N/A | E-Commerce Act Art. 18 |
| Seller identity | Name, address, reg. number on listing | Before first sale | E-Commerce Act |
What must you disclose on every product listing?
Every listing needs your seller identity clearly visible: business name, address, phone number, and mail-order registration number. Marketplaces enforce this at the account level, but the obligation is yours, not theirs.
Platforms that both sell directly and host third-party sellers must also flag which listings are their own inventory versus a marketplace seller's, so shoppers know who they're actually buying from.
A 2024 amendment to the E-Commerce Act added specific disclosure duties around customer reviews — how they're collected, ranked, and removed. Hiding that process risks corrective orders and fines up to ₩10 million, per the Fair Trade Commission's amendment.
If you're running the storefront yourself rather than through an agency, put this identity block in your listing template once and reuse it everywhere.
What are the labeling rules for imported products?
Imported products generally need Korean-language labeling covering ingredients, country of origin, and safety information before they can legally sell, on top of the E-Commerce Act's disclosure rules. Labeling sits under separate, category-specific law.
Electronics and most consumer goods fall under KC certification. Cosmetics, food, and supplements fall under the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety. Both regimes require Korean labeling as part of clearance, not an afterthought you add later.
The full certification sequence — which category needs what, and how long clearance takes — lives in our business registration, KC, and MFDS breakdown. Read it before you commit to a launch date.
What happens if you ignore these rules?
The Fair Trade Commission can issue corrective orders, require you to publicize the violation, and impose financial penalty surcharges for E-Commerce Act breaches. Marketplaces layer their own consequences on top.
In practice, marketplaces move faster than regulators. A missing registration number or a pattern of blocked cancellations gets a listing suspended long before an FTC case ever opens.
In our client work, the sellers who get flagged almost never intended to break the rules — they just built their storefront off a Western checklist that never mentioned Korea's.
How does this fit with KC and MFDS certification?
E-Commerce Act compliance and category certification are two separate gates, and you need both — one covers how you sell, the other covers what you're allowed to sell at all. Confusing them delays launches.
Registration and disclosure apply to every online seller regardless of product. KC and MFDS apply only to specific categories, but where they apply, they gate the product itself before it ever reaches a listing.
Sort certification first since it has the longer lead time, then layer the E-Commerce Act's registration and disclosure requirements on top before you go live. Both need to be done, not sequenced by convenience.
Payments and fulfilment carry their own compliance wrinkles too — see Korea payments and logistics for foreign sellers for that layer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Korean business entity to register as a mail-order seller?
Not necessarily. Registration ties to a Korean business registration number, which you can hold directly through your own entity or through a local partner or distributor who already has one. Many foreign brands start through a partner's registration and incorporate later once volume justifies it. Either path satisfies the E-Commerce Act, but the number itself must exist before you list.
Does the 7-day return rule apply to digital products too?
Yes, with narrower exceptions. Digital content, custom-made goods, and items that lose value once opened or used can be excluded from the standard withdrawal right under the E-Commerce Act's exceptions. Physical, unopened, resalable goods carry the strongest 7-day protection. If you sell digital goods or custom orders, document the exception clearly in your listing terms before you rely on it.
Can I use my home-country return policy instead of Korea's?
No. The E-Commerce Act's 7-day withdrawal right and disclosure requirements apply to any business selling to Korean consumers through a Korean-facing storefront, regardless of where your company is headquartered. A US or EU return policy that's stricter than Korea's default doesn't override the law. Build your Korea-facing terms around the local rules first, then layer your global policy underneath.
What's the difference between mail-order registration and business registration?
Business registration (사업자등록) makes you a legal taxpayer entity in Korea. Mail-order registration (통신판매업 신고) is a separate filing specifically for selling online, made with the Fair Trade Commission or your local district office, and it references your business registration number. You typically need the business registration first, then file the mail-order registration before your first online sale.
Do marketplace sellers on SmartStore or Coupang still need to register separately?
Generally yes. The marketplace itself registers as a platform operator, but individual sellers running storefronts still need their own mail-order registration and business registration number to onboard as a domestic seller. SmartStore checks for this during account setup, so it's worth filing before you start building your storefront, not after.
Getting the compliance layer right doesn't win you rankings on its own, but getting it wrong can freeze a launch that's otherwise ready. If you want a market-entry plan that sequences registration, certification, and marketplace setup correctly the first time, get a free audit and we'll map it out.
Last updated: September 2026
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