The Korea Consumer Agency announced on the 10th that, following an assessment of consumer orientation levels among domestic consumers, the dawn delivery market received the highest score. The marriage service market recorded the lowest score.
On the same day, the Consumer Agency released the '2024 Consumer Market Evaluation Index,' which evaluated how consumer-oriented each institutional sector operates. The results, based on surveys of 40,000 consumers, with 1,000 per market, regarding trust, availability, price fairness, complaints, and damage, revealed an average consumer orientation score of 65.7 out of 100.
According to market scores, the dawn delivery service scored the highest at 71.8, followed by health supplements at 70.3, household chemicals at 70.2, general hospital services at 69.7, and airline services at 69.7. The dawn delivery market had the highest scores for trust and price fairness among the 40 markets.
The five markets with the lowest consumer evaluation scores were marriage services at 50.4, school uniforms at 54.8, dwelling repairs and interior design at 59.4, veterinary services at 61.9, and postnatal care services at 62.5.
The marriage services market, which received the lowest score, had the lowest scores in four assessment categories among the 40 markets, including reliability. Particularly, the price fairness score ranked the lowest, with 85.4% (854 people) indicating that they found it difficult to find price information. Experiences of unexpected additional expenses were reported by 83.2% (832 people), and experiences of being prompted to make cash payments were noted by 78.1% (781 people).
The school uniform market had a low availability score. The expected price of school uniforms (182,457 won) was 36.4% higher than the actual price (248,814 won). About 44.6% of consumers identified 'monopoly' as the reason for the price increase.
In the dwelling repair and interior design sector, consumers cited the lack of price clarity as an issue that hinders product or service comparisons. Veterinary services had a low price fairness score, with the expected service price (102,660 won) being 86.8% higher than the price paid (191,807 won).
The postnatal care services market also faced challenges due to difficulty in comparing prices and services, alongside a low availability score. The Consumer Agency analyzed that 'of the five lowest markets, four are in the service sector, indicating a relatively low level of consumer orientation,' adding that 'many consumers felt the prices offered by the marriage services and veterinary services were not appropriate.'
The Consumer Agency plans to publish the results of this survey on its website as reference material for related ministries to use in improving regulations. Furthermore, it aims to propose improvement measures following in-depth research into the marriage services market, which recorded the lowest performance.