A Free Trial Must Get Your Consent Within 30 Days Before It Turns Paid -- Korea's Dark-Pattern Rules on Subscription Price Hikes and Blocked Cancellation
You tap "first month free" on a video or music app, and months later a charge you don't recognize shows up on your card statement. Since February 14, 2025, Korea's e-commerce law and its enforcement decree have included rules businesses must follow for this kind of recurring payment. Using only what the Fair Trade Commission and the government's policy briefing have published, this post lays out what a business must do when a free trial turns paid or a subscription price goes up, and the order in which a consumer can check things.
What changed: in force from February 14, 2025
The Fair Trade Commission said that, following the amendment of the E-Commerce Act, it put details such as the consent period before a recurring charge increases or a free service becomes paid into the enforcement decree and rules, effective February 14, 2025. The amended law regulates six types of "dark patterns," screen designs that deceive or push consumers. Two of them bear directly on subscriptions: "hidden renewal" and "obstruction of cancellation or withdrawal."
Before free turns paid: consent within 30 days
To raise the price of a recurring-payment product or convert free use to paid, a business must obtain the consumer's consent within 30 days before the change. It must also tell the consumer the conditions and method for withdrawing that consent. The purpose of the law is that the single consent given at sign-up cannot stand in for this; a separate consent and notice step is required. So a line such as "you will be charged monthly after the trial ends," tucked into a corner of the sign-up screen, may not be enough.
Cancelling must not be harder than signing up
"Obstruction of cancellation or withdrawal" means making the cancellation process more complicated than the purchase or sign-up process. Typical forms are signing up with one button but accepting cancellations only by phone to the call center, or forcing several screens and surveys before cancelling. Whether a particular screen counts is judged case by case by the FTC, so it is hard to declare that your own case is a violation. Still, if you cannot find a cancellation route, recording that fact helps with any later complaint.
Find the subscriptions billed through app stores and cards
To cancel, you first need to know where you are being charged. A subscription is either paid directly on the service's own website or through an app marketplace (Apple or Google), and where you cancel differs. App-store charges are managed on an iPhone under the subscriptions menu inside your Apple account in Settings, and on Android under the payments and subscriptions menu in your Google Play profile. Menu names may vary by operating system version. If you cannot tell where a charge comes from, look in your card company's app for a merchant that shows the same amount every month. While you are managing cards, it is also worth reading our post on card points that expire after five years.
Before cancelling: remaining period and refunds
Pressing the cancel button does not necessarily cut off use immediately. Usually you can keep using the service until the period you have already paid for ends, and billing stops from the next payment date. Whether you get a refund, and how much, differs by service terms, so capture the notice text on the cancellation screen. For goods bought online, Article 17 of the E-Commerce Act sets withdrawal within 7 days of receiving the contract document or the goods as the rule, but withdrawal can be restricted in some cases, such as digital content you have already started using, so check each service's own notice.
If there was an increase or conversion you never agreed to
If the price went up or the service turned paid without your consent, act in this order. First, capture the sign-up notice emails and texts, payment alerts and the cancellation screen. Second, ask the company's customer service in writing (chat or email) whether prior consent was obtained, and request a refund. Third, if it is not resolved, you can ask for advice or damage relief from the consumer counseling center at 1372 or the Korea Consumer Agency. For card payments you can also dispute the charge with the card company, but whether it is accepted differs from case to case.
What sanctions businesses face
According to FTC guidance, violating the six dark-pattern rules makes a business liable to a business suspension or a fine, with heavier standards for repeat violations. The published standard is a 3-month suspension or a 1 million won fine for a first violation, 6 months or 2 million won for a second, and 12 months or 5 million won for a third or later. The statutory fine ceiling was reported as 5 million won or less. Sanctions are decided after an FTC investigation, so a consumer complaint does not lead to an immediate penalty. On September 30, 2025, the FTC also separately released its dark-pattern monitoring and correction cases.
Summary: check just this once a month
The gist is to set a cancellation reminder on the day a free trial starts, to choose for yourself whether to consent when a price-increase notice arrives, and to capture the screens and contact 1372 if the cancellation route is blocked. Phone plans can be checked the same way, so also see how to read your carrier's optimal-plan notice and the criteria for cancelling without a penalty over poor call quality. This post is general information, not legal advice. For an individual dispute, confirm with the Korea Consumer Agency or a lawyer. Sources are the Fair Trade Commission press releases and the policy briefing site (korea.kr).
All content is fact-checked under our editorial standards.