Baemin fine: Korea's FTC says it pushed shops toward own delivery

Why is the Baemin ruling controversial?

Industry figures argue the market has moved to OD almost everywhere. In the US, DoorDash and Uber Eats handle more than 90% of orders through their own delivery. The top two players in China, India and Indonesia do the same, and leaders in Taiwan and Singapore run 100% OD. Grubhub, founded in 2004 and built around MP, lost the top spot to DoorDash and has effectively been pushed out of the market. In Korea, Coupang Eats is also 100% OD.

The worry is about who gets punished. At a briefing, the FTC said both models have strengths and weaknesses, and that a natural shift to OD is not something it can object to if fee terms are fair. One industry source reads that differently: a platform running both models may be penalised for strengthening the more popular one, so dropping MP could be the safer choice.

Industry sources also dispute the FTC's view that OD is more profitable. They say it needs heavy spending on riders, IT systems and customer service, so margins per order are well below MP.

What would dropping MP mean?

MP still matters in rural areas, where riders are scarce and customers and restaurants are spread out. Coupang Eats has skipped or left some such regions for that reason. Supporters of OD also point to quality: a Korea Consumer Agency survey covering 2017 to 2021 found delivery problems such as wrong or missing orders made up 33.6% of complaints, the largest share.