Duo's headquarters in Gangnam District, southern Seoul on April 23YONHAP
Korea's antitrust regulator has penalized Duo, one of the country's largest matchmaking companies, for advertising that more of its fee-paying members were doctors, lawyers or graduates of "prestigious universities" than at any competitor, without ever checking its rivals' memberships.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said Wednesday it issued a corrective order to Duo and imposed a penalty of 345 million won ($250,000) for false and exaggerated advertising.
Duo has used claims such as "5,135 professionals, the most in the industry" and "16,479 members from prestigious universities, the most in the industry" in online articles and on its website since November 2022.
Matchmaking companies in Korea charge fees to enroll members and introduce them to prospective marriage partners. What those members do for a living and where they studied are among the factors that weigh most heavily on which service a consumer picks, the FTC said.
The regulator found that Duo counted those members using criteria it set itself but never surveyed competitors' memberships for comparison. It had no objective data supporting its claim that the figures were the highest in the industry.
Duo counted doctors, lawyers, accountants and tax accountants as "professionals." It classified medical schools, universities in Seoul and the capital region, regional national universities and military academies as "prestigious universities."
The company also inflated the number of specialist managers it employed to give each member two-to-one personalized service. Its website advertised "the industry's largest team of 230 specialist managers," but only 188 were dedicated to matching members as of October 2023. The FTC found that the higher figure included general staff.
Duo also advertised itself as the only company in the industry subject to an external audit and the only company in Korea filing electronic disclosures with the Financial Supervisory Service. The FTC found both claims false, since competing matchmaking companies also disclose audit reports.
An advertisement by the matchmaking company Duo, left, claims "5,135 professionals, the most in the industry," and the company's website, right, claims Duo "has 16,479 members from prestigious universities, the most in the industry."FAIR TRADE COMMISSION
The regulator said membership figures for particular groups and the number of specialist managers are important information that can materially influence consumers’ choice of matchmaking company.
“In the matchmaking business, customers have difficulty knowing what the service actually offers until they sign up and begin receiving it, so it is important for companies to provide accurate information in their advertising,” an FTC official said. “The commission will continue to monitor unfair advertising and work to create a marketplace consumers can trust.”
Duo was separately penalized in April by the Personal Information Protection Commission, which imposed a penalty surcharge of 1.197 billion won after the personal information of about 430,000 members was leaked.
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.
