Korea’s two dominant food delivery apps, Baemin and Coupang Eats, have been found to use their membership perks to stop restaurants from offering better deals on rival platforms.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) provisionally fined Woowa Brothers, which runs Baemin and is controlled by Germany’s Delivery Hero, 331.1 billion won. Coupang, which runs Coupang Eats, was fined 300.8 billion won. The combined penalty is the largest the regulator has imposed in a food delivery app case. Both companies deny wrongdoing and say they will consider appealing once they receive the written decision.

Coupang said its Wow restaurant programme was designed to give diners affordable prices and free delivery, which it funded in full, while increasing restaurants’ sales. It also says “there was not a single unauthorised termination” under the policy, NoCut News reported. The KFTC counted 57,907 restaurants that lost Wow status at least once.

Coupang ⁠told Reuters the penalty was excessive and more than 600 times the fine imposed in a comparable 2020 case involving another food delivery app.

At the heart of the case are most-favoured-nation (MFN) clauses: requirements that prevent sellers from offering better prices or terms on competing platforms.

The KFTC found that Coupang Eats charged restaurants higher fees than Baemin, prompting restaurants to pass on the additional costs through higher menu prices on Coupang’s app. Rather than lower its fees, Coupang sought to eliminate restaurants’ ability to offer different prices across platforms, according to KFTC.

From July 2023 to January 2026, restaurants that failed to match or offer better terms on six items, including menu prices, minimum order values and discounts, risked losing their ‘Wow’ status.

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