A taxi branded with the logo of Kakao T, Kakao's taxi-hailing service, is seen in Seoul on Feb. 24, 2022.YONHAP
Hailing a taxi in Korea takes just a few taps on a smartphone, but getting a refund when something goes wrong can be far more complicated.
A total of 283 consumer complaints seeking compensation or other remedies involving Kakao Mobility, the operator of taxi-hailing app Kakao T, were filed between 2022 and August, according to data submitted by the Korea Consumer Agency to Democratic Party (DP) Rep. Yoo Dong-soo's office and releasedOct. 20. Kakao T accounts for more than 90 percent of Korea's taxi-hailing market.
The number of complaints filed last year reached 72, more than four times the 17 recorded in 2018.
Failure to fulfill contractual obligations or incomplete service accounted for the largest share of complaints between 2022 and August, with 77 cases, or 27.2 percent. Unfair business practices followed with 53 cases, or 18.7 percent, including cases in which passengers were charged cancellation fees due to duplicate taxi assignments. Contract cancellations, terminations and disputes over penalty fees ranked third, with 49 cases, or 17.3 percent.
Together, the three categories accounted for 63.3 percent of all complaints.
Despite the growing number of complaints, only 102 of the 283 cases, or 36 percent, resulted in remedies such as compensation or refunds.
On July 28 last year, one passenger booked and boarded a taxi through Kakao T but was charged a cancellation fee of 26,800 won ($19) due to a duplicate taxi assignment.
The passenger's request for a refund was rejected, which made them to file a complaint with the Korea Consumer Agency.
A taxi with the Kakao T logo drives on the road in central Seoul in an undated photo.NEWS1
Another case involved a passenger who hailed a taxi through the Kakao T app after attending a fireworks festival in Yeouido, western Seoul, in September. The passenger boarded the taxi at around 1 a.m., but had to get out about 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) before the destination because of the driver's poor driving skills.
The driver ended the trip on the app as if the passenger had reached the destination and charged the full fare, leaving the passenger paying for a longer journey than they had actually taken. The passenger later contacted Kakao T's customer service center to request a refund, but the platform responded that it had no authority to adjust or recover fares because fares are collected by drivers.
Experts say consumers are being left without adequate protection when disputes arise over rides booked and paid for through taxi-hailing platforms.
“Consumers use taxi services because they trust the platform rather than individual transportation providers, but responsibility for the transportation service itself still lies with individual operators, making disputes difficult to resolve,” said Lee Hong-joo, a professor of consumer economics at Sookmyung Women's University. “We need to examine whether the current consumer protection system adequately reflects the reality of a market that has shifted toward platforms.”
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
