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The Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) stated on the 4th that it has issued a corrective directive and imposed a fine of 5 million South Korean won on Yanadoo for making misleading claims about the quantity, number of beneficiaries, and impact of scholarships offered to students who enrolled in courses, without any factual basis, while promoting online English classes on its website.

As per the KFTC, Yanadoo has been running a scholarship initiative since May 2014, where scholarships are provided to participants who finish courses, submit reviews, and similar activities. Nevertheless, it came to light that Yanadoo engaged in misleading and false advertising about the scholarship amounts, the number of beneficiaries, and their impact between December 2023, in an effort to draw in customers.

First, Yanadoo displayed an advertisement on the homepage’s initial screen from December 2023 to November 2024, featuring the message, “Exceeded 8.8 billion won! A total of 160,000 people have received scholarships!” Although Yanadoo provided proof for the 8.8 billion won figure by showing evidence for each scholarship program, it was found that the 160,000 recipients were not actual scholarship recipients but rather participants who attempted the scholarship program. Furthermore, the calculation of the 8.8 billion won amount did not provide enough details about the cumulative period of scholarships and other relevant criteria. The KFTC stated, “Consumers who viewed the advertisement might mistakenly believe that many enrollees recently participated in the scholarship program and received this amount of scholarships, rather than understanding that scholarships started being distributed from May 2014.”

Furthermore, Yanadoo promoted from December 2023 to May 2025 that “the completion rate of participants who enrolled in the scholarship program is three times greater than those who only attended classes.” Nevertheless, it was discovered that this claim did not consider different kinds of scholarships, including the 90-day Scholarship, 55-day Scholarship, and Full Refund Scholarship, but was only derived from the data related to the Full Refund Scholarship.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission found that Yanadoo’s activities breached Article 21 of the E-Commerce Act related to consumer protection, and issued a corrective measure (a future ban order) along with a fine of 5 million South Korean won.