One in Five Online Shops Won't Let Customers Go

It is nearly impossible to cancel membership in one out of five online shopping malls. This is according to a survey by the Seoul Electronic Commerce Center on the personal information protection status of 17,155 online shops that reported business operations to Seoul city authorities as of June. The ECC released the findings on Wednesday.

Results show that 90 percent of online malls requests resident registration numbers when people join but canceling membership was practically impossible at 22.2 percent.

Some 987 malls or 5.8 percent have no written provisions on canceling membership, while a whopping 2,820 or 16.4 percent say it is possible to cancel membership but provide no website link for the purpose. Some 707 of the malls where membership can be canceled require users to make personal requests through the online bulletin board, phone or fax and get their approval to cancel membership.

The commerce center will ask local district offices to correct the practice of the 3,807 online malls where membership is difficult or impossible to cancel.