[Shot!] "I Bought It Because It Was Cheap, but I Felt Deceived…It Left a Bad Taste"

Illegal resale of military-mart-exclusive products is still rampant
"I bought it at half price, but a military-mart product was delivered"
Illegal sellers profiteer…"Complete blocking is not easy"
"Online platforms must also take responsibility for distribution management"

"Not long ago on Coupang I bought a sunscreen priced at almost half the original, but a military-mart product came. There was no such mention anywhere in the description, and I was dumbfounded when I received it. Is it normal to hide that it's for the military mart and sell it?"

Ms. Lee (36), a homemaker, said this on the 26th and expressed displeasure, saying, "If I had known it was a military-mart product, I wouldn't have bought it, and I feel deceived."

The illegal resale of military-mart-exclusive products, supplied at about half the market price for the welfare of military personnel, is still rampant.

Professor Lee Young-ae of the Department of Consumer Studies at Incheon National University pointed out, "Consumers often buy just seeing the low price, without knowing it is a military-mart product," adding, "In this case, when a problem arises with the product, the consumer may suffer a disadvantage in exercising legitimate rights such as refunds or returns."


"I received a military-supply product…Is there no problem?"

Mr. Choi (38) said, "A lotion I bought at a NAVER Smart Store in January this year was marked as being for the military mart," adding, "Just in case, I asked the cosmetics company whether it was counterfeit and whether there was any problem with receiving a military-supply product."

He continued, "The cosmetics company told me the contents are identical to the lotion sold in stores, and that there was no record of it being reported as counterfeit, so I could use it with peace of mind."

On the site where Mr. Choi bought the product, as of the 26th, about 50 items were being sold, including cosmetics such as lotion, sunscreen, and hair products, and health functional foods such as supplements—all matching products sold at the military mart. The prices were set higher than the military mart but lower than the market price.

For one cream product, the market list price is 38,000 won, but on this site the same volume is 10,490 won. However, the military mart selling price is 6,930 won. In other words, it is being sold at a markup of over 50% on the military mart price.

Also, a serum with a list price of 23,000 won is sold at 12,830 won (military mart price 8,200 won), and a moisturizing cream with a list price of 43,000 won at 20,970 won (military mart price 7,200 won).

Yet nowhere in the product description on the site is there any notice that it is a military-mart product.

Office worker Mr. Park (28) also said, "In April I bought a razor on Coupang, and when I received it, it was marked on the back as a military-mart product," adding, "It looked like an ordinary online product so I ordered it without any suspicion, but it left a bad taste because it seemed I had bought a product for which resale is prohibited."

On online communities too, reviews saying "I bought cosmetics on an open market and a military-mart product came" continue one after another.

Under the "Military Welfare Basic Act," the military stores established and operated by the Korea Military Welfare Corps—collectively including marts, shopping towns, and internet shopping malls—are commonly called "military marts." As of 2024, a total of 1,720 locations are operated nationwide, and only designated eligible persons such as active-duty military personnel, military families, and persons of distinguished service to the state can use them.

The advantage of the military mart is its strikingly low prices. As of 2024, for the 520 items supplied to military marts, the average discount rate reaches 55.2%.

As a result, illegal resale reared its head.

Eligible military-mart users buy products and resell them directly, or specialized private businesses borrow the names of eligible users to purchase goods in bulk and then resell them on open markets.

The current Article 15 of the Military Welfare Basic Act stipulates that "users of welfare facilities such as military stores shall not resell military store products." Military-mart products also carry the warning phrase, "Resale of military-mart products is prohibited, and violations may be subject to sanctions."

However, according to an institutional regular audit report of the Ministry of National Defense released by the Board of Audit and Inspection in February last year, the Korea Military Welfare Corps received a total of 156 civil complaints, from January 2022 to April 2024, to the effect that resale businesses were selling military mart products through open markets and the like.

It was also revealed that a reseller, through the child of a person of distinguished service to the state, bulk-purchased military mart products such as cream worth a whopping 420,345,670 won from April 2022 to April 2024, then resold them on the market to reap enormous illicit profits.

Despite enforcement…no legal basis to punish civilians
Active-duty service members' and military civilian employees' for-profit resale can be sanctioned under Article 64 of the State Public Officials Act and Article 30 of the Framework Act on the Status and Service of Military Personnel.

However, for civilians, there is no separate provision to punish this, so under the Korea Military Welfare Corps' internal rules, only measures such as restricting bulk purchases by internal military-mart users or revoking usage eligibility upon detection are possible.

Meanwhile, the Korea Military Welfare Corps operates an illegal resale report board, but all report posts uploaded after November 20 last year remain in a 'pending' answer status. There is even a post asking to confirm whether the board is operating normally.

In a written inquiry from Yonhap News on the 24th, the Ministry of National Defense stated, "The Korea Military Welfare Corps is implementing measures to block the resale of military-mart products through receiving civil complaints, self-monitoring, and operating a report site," adding, "When online resale is identified, we request each platform to halt sales through the Korea Online Shopping Association."

It added, "We are working toward fundamentally blocking resale, including developing a system to check and control individual purchase quantities," and "a bill to establish grounds for restricting military-mart use by resale violators and for prevention and enforcement is also being pursued."

However, it stated, "The bill currently under review focuses on sanctions at the level of restricting military-mart use rather than criminal punishment."

Seo In-ho, an attorney belonging to Daeryun LLC's National Defense and Military Group, pointed out, "The military also recognizes the resale problem and has recently strengthened its response by adding a 'resale prohibited' phrase to some products and limiting purchase quantities," while adding, "In a situation where the purchase eligibility has been expanded even to the parents of active-duty soldiers, fundamental blocking is not easy."

He continued, "If the seller did not inform that it was a military-mart product, a consumer protection issue may be raised," while adding, "If there is no quality problem, it may not be easy for a remedy to be recognized merely on the ground that this was not disclosed."

In this situation, a bill to amend the Military Welfare Basic Act—which would strongly restrict welfare facility use in the event of a violation of the resale prohibition clause on military mart products and would establish and implement a constant monitoring system for resale prevention and enforcement—was proposed in November last year.

Also, last month Gmarket and Auction announced that for cases of illegal online distribution of military-mart-exclusive products, "upon detection with two warnings, the seller's ID account will be immediately and permanently blocked."

Professor Lee pointed out, "The platform holds the most information to check and filter whether there are products among those sold at excessively low prices that did not go through normal distribution channels," adding, "The platform must also bear responsibility for distribution management."

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