South Korea E-Commerce Platform Officially Declares Bankruptcy, 100,000 Consumers Affected

According to Yonhap News Agency, on November 10 local time, the Seoul Rehabilitation Court (Bankruptcy Court) ruled that the e-commerce company WeMakePrice, which was in trouble due to debt issues, has officially declared bankruptcy.

In the early hours of July 25, 2024, local time, the headquarters of the e-commerce company Weimeipu in Gangnam District, Seoul, South Korea, was packed with consumers seeking refunds.

According to reports, Weimei Pu applied to the court to initiate a restructuring process at the end of July 2024, and after 1 year and 4 months, it was ultimately declared bankrupt. The deadline for creditor claims is set for January 6, 2026, and the creditors' meeting and investigation period is scheduled for the 27th of the same month at the Seoul Rehabilitation Court.

The report mentioned that the bankruptcy administrator will immediately liquidate the debtor's assets after the bankruptcy declaration and verify the existence, amount, and priority of the claims filed by creditors. Subsequently, they will report on the debtor's asset status, liquidation results, future plans, and expected claims distribution at the creditors' meeting. In the bankruptcy process, claims such as wages, retirement benefits, and taxes have priority for repayment, so it is expected that ordinary creditors of Weimeipu will be unlikely to recover any funds.

The victims of the Weimeipu debt incident number approximately 108,000, with a loss amounting to about 580 billion Korean won (approximately 2.8 billion RMB). Financial reports show that Weimeipu's total assets amount to 48.6 billion Korean won (approximately 240 million RMB). The total liabilities reach 446.2 billion Korean won (approximately 2.2 billion RMB), with virtually no liquid assets.

A committee composed of victims stated that they were declared to have a "compensation rate of 0%," meaning they would not receive a single penny. The committee criticized this, stating that the incident fully exposed the inability of the current legal system in South Korea to reflect the realities of the online circulation industry.

According to reports, Weimipu and TMON are both subsidiaries of the South Korean e-commerce company Qoo10, headquartered in Singapore, and were previously the fourth and fifth largest e-commerce platforms in South Korea. Due to both companies' failure to pay merchants and timely refund consumers, they both applied for restructuring in court at the end of July 2024, citing operational difficulties. It is reported that TMON, which has been taken over by the fresh food delivery company Oasis through the restructuring process, has indefinitely postponed its planned reopening on September 10 due to the absence of any credit card companies joining.