South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission hit Coupang with a provisional Won300.8bn ($222.8m) administrative fine for forcing restaurant merchants into parity agreements on its food delivery platform.

The penalty lands alongside a provisional Won331.1bn fine on market leader Woowa Brothers, operator of Baedal Minjok, bringing combined regulatory penalties across the country’s two dominant food delivery services to Won631.9bn.

Regulators found that Coupang abused its dominant market position by forcing restaurants to offer commercial terms equal to or better than those listed on rival platforms. The company monitored six operating areas, including menu pricing and operating hours, between July 2023 and January 2026. Restaurants that failed to comply lost their status as designated WOW Stores.

Losing that designation carried direct commercial consequences. Coupang had restricted delivery perks for paying WOW Membership subscribers exclusively to transactions completed at WOW Stores starting in April 2023.

The commission reported that 57,907 merchants were stripped of their WOW Store status at least once for non-compliance. The pressure worked swiftly. The share of compliant WOW Stores surged from 13.49 per cent in July 2023 to 93.78 per cent by October 2025.

Investigators concluded that these most-favoured-nation clauses breached the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act by stifling commission competition between delivery apps. Platforms could raise take rates without fearing that restaurants would offer lower prices elsewhere to steer diners toward cheaper channels.

The regulator also took aim at how Coupang calculated platform fees. Under the Coupang Eats Merchant Pricing Policy, the service calculated order amounts using pre-discount retail prices.

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