Trip.com’s ‘nonrefundable’ terms under scrutiny at parliamentary audit; unregistered operations also criticized [2026 Parliamentary Inspection of the Administration]

[Financial News] Cancellation and refund terms for some flight tickets and lodging products sold by online travel platform Trip.com became a point of contention during a parliamentary audit. Questions continued over consumer-protection responsibility for transaction terms that limit the time in which refunds are available and for operating an online mail-order business for years without registration.
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Cho Gye-won questioned Jongmin Hong, head of Trip.com’s Korea branch, who appeared as a witness at the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee’s comprehensive audit on the 23rd, about the refund terms for a hotel stay in Myeong-dong. Cho pointed out that the product cost 280,000 won at other sellers and 204,280 won on Trip.com, but that a full refund for the Trip.com product was available only if it was canceled within 30 minutes of the booking being confirmed.
He also took issue with the cancellation terms for flight tickets. Citing a ticket to Tokyo, Cho criticized the policy, saying, “Once 24 hours have passed after payment, even a ticket with 91 days remaining until departure cannot be refunded.”
Hong said, “Nonrefundable products aren’t something we can create at our discretion,” explaining that other online travel agencies also sell them. He also defended the policy, saying, “We make them available at somewhat lower prices under nonrefundable terms,” and said he would review the rules before responding.
The issue of operating without registering as a mail-order business was also raised. Cho said Trip.com Singapore had operated without registration since 2017 and Trip.com Korea since 2020. Hong replied, “We looked into how to register extensively starting in 2020, but there was no way to do so.” Both companies completed their mail-order business registrations last year.
Earlier, in June, the Korea Fair Trade Commission decided to issue corrective and reporting orders and impose fines totaling 10 million won on the two companies for operating without mail-order business registration and refunding customers with airline vouchers instead of through their original payment method, among other violations. From February 2020 through July last year, 13,010 refunds were issued as vouchers, accounting for 0.84% of all refunds, with a total value of approximately 3.155 billion won.
Cho asked Minister Choi Hwi-young of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to verify the results of the corrective measures to Trip.com’s refund rules and report them to the National Assembly.
[email protected] Jang In-seo Reporter