Caption: Education Will advertised “9 out of 10 people pass within 3 months” when selling online courses related to public sector employment from March 15 to April 26, 2022. /Fair Trade Commission
“9 out of 10 people pass within 3 months.”
Online education service provider Education Will released this advertisement on their website. While promoting online courses related to public sector employment, they based this claim on a survey conducted only with 10 students.
The Fair Trade Commission deemed this advertisement as unfair advertising that lures consumers with false or exaggerated facts based on a survey lacking representativeness, and imposed a corrective order and a fine of 5 million won on Education Will, announced on the 4th.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, Education Will ran this advertisement for about a month from March to April 2022. They stated that “consumers with normal attention who came across this advertisement would have been misled into believing that 90% of course students who applied for employment courses would pass in the short period of 3 months.”
Article 21 of the Electronic Commerce Law states, “A business operator or online seller shall not entice consumers through deceptive means.” Violation may result in fines of up to 10 million won.
It was also revealed that Education Will falsely advertised a ‘discount deadline.’ They held a sale offering a 100,000 won discount on online courses such as the ‘Public Sector Refund Course’ in February 2022, initially setting the deadline for March 2 of the same year, but extended it twice without any reason. The Fair Trade Commission judged this as misleading consumers unfairly. They induced payments by falsely claiming that discounts could not be obtained after the deadline.
The Fair Trade Commission stated, “This was a measure to sanction acts that entice consumers with false or exaggerated facts prohibited by the Electronic Commerce Law,” and said, “We will continue to monitor unfair advertising practices of online course providers in the future.”