Korean Supreme Court on Lowest Price Guarantee Criminal Prosecution of Yogiyo under the Fair Trade Act of Korea

The Supreme Court of Korea upheld the not guilty verdict of the company owning the Yogiyo delivery app noting that mandating that a restaurant on the delivery app provides a “lowest price guarantee” and “same quality guarantee” is not a violation of Korea’s Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act on February 20, 2025 (2024Do11863). Thus, acquitting Yogiyo of crimes alleged under the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act of Korea.

Please see: Korean Antitrust Law for more articles on Korean Monopoly & Fair Trade Law.

Korea’s Lowest Price Guarantee Antitrust Law:
Korea’s Monopoly & Fair Trade Law

Supreme Court of Korea’s Case on Lowest Price Guarantee Restraints on Trade

1. The company that owned the ubiquitous delivery app Yogiyo mandated that all restaurants on its app provide a “lowest price guarantee.” The lowest price guarantee system of Yogiyo gave customers a 300% coupon for the price difference if the customer found a cheaper price via ordering on a different delivery app, via phone, or via other channels while demanding that the restaurants adjust the price to the same price as the other channel.
2. The Korean Prosecution Service indicted the company owning the Yogiyo app claiming, in short, that it infringed on the rights of restaurants to freely manage their restaurants with regard to price, quality, and quantity of goods provided.
3. The Korean trial and appeals courts found Yogiyo not guilty.
4. The Appeals Court noted, in part, that “it cannot be immediately concluded that a delivery app business unfairly disadvantaged the other party simply by requiring restaurants that benefit from the expanded sales channels through the use of delivery apps to not discriminate in their direct sales prices as a condition of a transaction in order to maintain the business system. . .the anti-discrimination clause requires restaurants not to discriminate between the prices of food and services they sell through other delivery apps and the sales prices and services of the Yogiyo delivery app . . . it does not reach the level of prohibited management interference.”

The Supreme Court upheld, the holding of the lower courts.

We shall update the reader when more critical holdings are handed down by the Supreme Court of Korea and other courts on Korea’s rapidly evolving Monopoly and Fair Trade Law.

Sean Hayes is the first non-Korean attorney to have worked for the Korean court system (Constitutional Court of Korea) and one of the first non-Koreans to be a regular member of a Korean law faculty. Sean is ranked, for Korea, as one of only a few non-Korean lawyers as a Top Attorney by AsiaLaw,  IPG Legal is consistently ranked a Top Dispute Resolution Law Firm for our litigation, arbitration, and mediation services, and IPG Legal is consistently rated a top-tier law firm in corporate law, litigation, arbitration, franchise law, distribution law, estate law, family law, employment & labor law, and criminal defense.

To schedule a call with Sean Hayes, please Schedule a Call Here.