"I thought it was 710,000 won, but it became 1.15 million won at checkout"...Hidden prices that trap travelers [Consumer Basics]

[The Financial News] #. Office worker Mr. A was searching for overseas resort passes on a travel platform app when he found a "special offer" priced at 710,000 won. Believing it was a very good deal, he immediately completed the payment.However, while checking his booking confirmation again before departure, Mr. A noticed a line under the payment amount that read "other on-site payment amount: 440,000 won." When he contacted the platform, he was told that this was an amount that had "also been indicated at the time of payment." It turned out that, at the final payment stage, the platform had provided a separate notice in small, faint text that an additional on-site payment would be charged. When Mr. A argued that "the information had not been properly disclosed" and asked to cancel the contract, the platform said it would charge a 350,000 won cancellation fee.In a similar case, Mr. B compared several airline websites to book a domestic flight and chose the date showing the lowest fare. But when he moved to the payment stage, airport facility fees and fuel surcharges were added, and the final payment amount was much higher than the price shown on the initial search screen. Since he was already at the last step before payment and going back would be cumbersome, Mr. B reluctantly went ahead and paid.
According to the Department of Market Research's Market Surveillance Team at the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) on the 1st, these examples fall under a type of dark pattern known as "drip pricing." In drip pricing, the seller initially hides part of the total amount actually required to purchase a product and then reveals additional costs step by step as the consumer proceeds through the checkout process.
The structure lures consumers with a low price, then later adds taxes, fees, and on-site payment amounts, pushing up the final bill. As a result, consumers find it difficult to accurately compare prices across products, and under time pressure they may complete the transaction without fully realizing the true total. This is especially common among global online travel agency (OTA) platforms, which often display room rates excluding taxes or cleaning fees and then tack them on at the payment stage.
The Act on the Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, Etc. explicitly prohibits drip pricing practices. The law requires that the first online screen showing the price of goods or services must include the full amount the consumer is required to pay. Even when it is unavoidable to exclude certain amounts, businesses must clearly inform consumers of the excluded items and the reasons. Violations can result in an administrative fine of up to 5 million won, rising to up to 10 million won from July 21.
Other countries have adopted even stronger regulations. In Australia, as early as 2014, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) brought a case before the Federal Court of Australia, arguing that airlines had misled consumers by advertising low "headline prices" and then adding mandatory fees at the payment stage. The court ordered total fines of about 650 million won (745,000 Australian dollars).
Through fact-finding surveys and recommendations for improvement, the KCA is pushing businesses to display the total payment amount on the initial screen. A KCA official said, "When purchasing a product or signing a contract online, it is best to check whether the initially displayed price and the final payment amount are the same before you pay."

localplace@fnnews.com Kim Hyun-ji Reporter