South Korea Fines Coupang $220 Million for Forcing Restaurants to Match Rival Prices

South Korea's antitrust regulator said on Monday, 9 November 2026, that it was imposing a 300.9 billion won ($220.59 million) fine on e-commerce firm Coupang for abusing its dominant position in the food delivery market. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said Coupang required merchants to match favourable terms offered on rival platforms and penalised those that failed to comply, restricting competition in the delivery app sector.

What Coupang did, according to the regulator

Coupang required restaurants to match six conditions, including menu prices, minimum order amounts, discounts and delivery charges, the FTC said. The case concerns Coupang's conduct from July 2023 to January of this year, when it demanded that restaurants on its platform match those six transaction conditions so they were no less favourable than on competing apps, and excluded those that refused from Wow Stores, the storefront reserved for benefits exclusive to its paid membership. Restaurants dropped from Wow Stores cannot receive the discounts and free-delivery benefits offered to Coupang Wow members. The regulator said the practices harmed merchants' ability to set prices and other trading conditions independently and impeded rivals' business activities. The proportion of restaurants meeting the requirements rose to nearly 94 per cent in October 2025 from about 13 per cent in July 2023.

Baemin fined too

The FTC also fined Woowa Brothers, the operator of rival delivery app Baemin, 331.1 billion won for similar practices. Together, the two firms account for more than 90 per cent of South Korea's food delivery market — Baemin held a 58.45 per cent share and Coupang Eats 34.44 per cent by order value last year. The combined penalty of roughly 631.9 billion won (about $467 million) is the largest among delivery-app sanctions. The FTC concluded that the number one and number two players simultaneously demanding most-favoured-nation treatment weakened commission competition and made restaurant transaction conditions similar across platforms — an effect tantamount to collusion. The final amounts of the fines will be determined before the regulator issues its written decision, with no timetable announced.

Coupang pushes back

Coupang said in a statement the penalty was excessive and more than 600 times the fine imposed in a comparable 2020 case involving another food delivery app. In 2020, the FTC fined Yogiyo 468 million won (approximately $350,000) for demanding lowest prices from restaurants and terminating contracts with 43 establishments that did not comply. Coupang immediately pushed back and signalled legal proceedings; the companies can respond through legal procedures such as filing objections or a cancellation suit at the Seoul High Court after receiving the written decision. The ruling adds to tensions between US-listed Coupang and South Korean authorities, which fined the company 624 billion won in June over a 2025 data breach affecting more than 33 million customers. Coupang is challenging the data leak fine in court.

Sources

• Reuters — South Korea fines Coupang $220 million for abusing dominance in food delivery market
• CNA — South Korea fines Coupang $220 million for abusing dominance in food delivery market