Finance Minister unveils measures for e-commerce sellers after payment delays Qoo10

SEOUL, Aug. 6 (Yonhap) — Finance Minister Choi Sang-mok on Tuesday outlined policy measures for e-commerce merchants hit by recent payment delays on Qoo10-owned platforms TMON and WeMakePrice.

As part of the measures, the government will shorten the time for payments made by e-commerce platforms to sellers, Choi said at a meeting with ruling party representatives.

The government will also require e-commerce platforms to separately manage the money to be paid to sellers, Choi said.

As of last Thursday, the amount of delayed payments on the two platforms was estimated to be 278.3 billion won ($203 million), but speculation suggests that the amount could rise to as much as 1 trillion won if future payments are taken into account.

“It is possible that the scale of damage could increase even more when we take into account the June and July transactions whose settlement dates are approaching,” Choi said.

During the meeting, the government and the ruling party announced an agreement to provide liquidity of 500 billion won to suppliers TMON and WeMakePrice.

TMON and WeMakePrice were accused of continuing their business operations despite knowing that timely payments to suppliers would be impossible due to cash flow problems.