[Alpha Biz= Paul Lee] Seoul, South Korea – April 22, 2025 – Consumer complaints have surged following a controversial policy change by Tving, a major South Korean over-the-top (OTT) streaming service, which now prohibits account sharing among users outside of the same household.
According to the Korea Consumer Agency on April 22, the number of consumer consultations related to OTT services skyrocketed to 374 cases last month, a 315.6% increase from 90 cases in the previous month. Compared to 47 cases in the same month last year, the figure represents a 695.7% year-over-year spike.
The surge in complaints follows Tving’s announcement on March 22 that, starting April 2, it would ban account sharing beyond members of the same household.
The policy sparked backlash as it was initially applied retroactively to users who had already purchased annual subscription plans prior to the announcement. In response to mounting criticism, Tving later revised its stance, allowing those customers to continue using the service under the original terms until their contracts expire.
The Korea Consumer Agency also noted significant increases in complaints related to laptop computers and mobile gaming services, ranking second and third in growth rate. Laptop-related consultations rose 97.6%, mainly involving cases where consumers purchased devices from overseas online platforms and were subsequently unable to contact the sellers.
Mobile gaming complaints grew by 40.6%, with many users reporting issues such as paid items becoming unusable due to service errors or being locked out of the game after launch.
Alphabiz Reporter Paul Lee(hoondork1977@alphabiz.co.kr)
