When the Telecoms Provider Will Not Budge, You Can Escalate to Mediation — 60 Days, and No Filing Fee
Arguing with a telecoms provider tends to hit the same wall. The call centre says the contract terms leave no room, you re-explain everything each time the agent changes, and the amount is awkwardly small — annoying, but not worth a lawsuit. Most people stop there. There is, however, a procedure built for exactly this situation: telecommunications dispute mediation. It has a statutory basis, a fixed 60-day processing period, and it costs nothing to file. Last year 2,123 applications were filed, the highest on record. Here is what can be disputed and how to move it across.
A call centre complaint and mediation are not the same procedure
A complaint filed with a call centre is a process in which the company judges its own case. Once it says the rules do not allow something, that is the end of the road inside that channel. Dispute mediation sits outside it. Under Article 45-2 of the Telecommunications Business Act, the Telecommunications Dispute Mediation Committee steps between the user and the provider and produces a mediation proposal.
The body running it is a government agency. The former Korea Communications Commission has been reorganised as the Korea Media and Communications Commission, so the name of the supervising ministry has changed, but the scheme and the intake channel carry over. Applications go through tdrc.kr, and the advice line is 142-246.
What can be disputed
The statute and the official guidance set out the eligible categories.
- Service contracts — disputes arising in the conclusion, use or termination of a contract
- Explanation and notice of material terms — where charges, contract conditions or discounts were not explained, or were explained inaccurately
- Breach of the terms of use — where the service provided differed from the published terms
- Service quality — speed, outages and related disputes
- Damages — disputes relating to compensation under Article 33 of the same Act
- App market payments — payment, cancellation and refund disputes
The category worth noticing is explanation and notice of material terms. "The conditions I was told at sign-up are not the conditions on my bill" belongs here, and it accounted for 22.5% of all filings last year. A representative example is not being told how the 25% selective contract discount ends when the commitment period ends.
What actually gets filed
The published 2025 figures show a clear distribution. Filings reached 2,123, up 590 cases or 38.5% on 1,533 in 2024, and the highest since the scheme began in 2019.
- Service contracts — 1,122 cases (52.8%)
- Explanation and notice of material terms — 478 cases (22.5%)
- Other — 359 cases (16.9%)
- Service quality — 143 cases (6.7%)
- Terms of use — 21 cases (1.0%)
Contract-related disputes led in both wireless and wired services (655 cases, 45.3% and 467 cases, 69.1% respectively). The much higher wired share is not hard to guess at: internet and TV charges still being collected on a service the customer believed was cancelled cluster here. One reported case ran on direct debit for fourteen years. Money leaving an account quietly every month does not show up through the channels for tracing unclaimed refunds and dormant deposits. The only way to find it is to open the billing record yourself.
Filing is online, and there is no fee
The procedure is straightforward. Go to tdrc.kr, file the application, and track progress through the case lookup on the same site. Postal filing is available, and a representative may file on your behalf with a letter of authority attached.
What to prepare is evidence that fixes the facts. The core set is the sign-up form or contract, bills and payment records, complaint reference numbers with dates and times of calls, and screenshots of text messages or app notifications. In cases that turn on what was said during a call, the date and the person you spoke to must exist somewhere in your records so it can be matched against the company's log. If you need material the provider holds about you, the procedure for requesting access to your personal data can be used alongside this.
A mediation proposal arrives within 60 days
The fixed timetable is the real advantage here. The committee reviews the case and prepares a mediation proposal within 60 days of the filing date, extendable once by up to 30 days where unavoidable.
Before mediation, the committee may recommend that the parties settle within a set period, and if they do, the case closes there. In practice a large share of cases resolve at that stage. Resolution rates reported for 2025 were 82.8% for contract disputes, 79.5% for explanation and notice of material terms, and 78.9% for quality.
A signed mediation record is more than an agreement
If all parties accept the proposal, mediation is established and a mediation record is drawn up. A record signed and sealed by the chairperson and all parties has the same effect as an enforceable title. In plain terms: if the other side does not deliver the refund it agreed to, you do not start the argument over from the beginning.
In January 2023 an ex officio mediation decision mechanism was added (Article 45-6). Note the limit, though — it has no effect unless the parties accept it. Mediation remains a procedure for producing agreement, not for imposing a ruling.
When mediation does not settle it
Mediation is not a cure-all. If a party rejects the proposal, the case terminates there and what follows is civil procedure. For smaller amounts that usually means a small claims action or a payment order. The structure resembles why a payment freeze is so hard to obtain in transaction disputes. That said, because telecommunications mediation is free and runs on a fixed clock, going through it first costs you nothing even if litigation follows.
In order
- File with the call centre first and record the reference number and the date and time of the call. That record becomes evidence at the mediation stage.
- Gather bills, payment records and sign-up documents, and reduce it to one line: from when, and how much, was wrongly charged.
- File at tdrc.kr. There is no fee. Enquiries on 142-246.
- Consider what the company offers at the settlement recommendation stage. Most cases end here.
- If no settlement is reached, a proposal arrives within 60 days (up to 90 with extension). State whether you accept it within the deadline.
- If mediation is established, keep the record. It carries the same effect as an enforceable title.
Sources and verification. Article 45-2 of the Telecommunications Business Act (establishment of the Telecommunications Dispute Mediation Committee) and related provisions, together with the Korea Media and Communications Commission (formerly the Korea Communications Commission) guidance on telecommunications dispute mediation — the categories of eligible dispute, preparation of a mediation proposal within 60 days of filing and extension once by up to 30 days where unavoidable, filing methods (tdrc.kr, post, filing by a representative, advice line 142-246), the effect of a mediation record signed and sealed by the chairperson and all parties, and the ex officio mediation decision under Article 45-6 introduced on 3 January 2023, which has no effect unless the parties accept it. Reported 2025 telecommunications dispute mediation figures — 2,123 filings, up 590 cases or 38.5% on 1,533 in 2024 and the highest since 2019; by category, service contracts 1,122 cases 52.8%, explanation and notice of material terms 478 cases 22.5%, other 359 cases 16.9%, quality 143 cases 6.7%, terms of use 21 cases 1.0%; wireless contract disputes 655 cases 45.3% and wired contract disputes 467 cases 69.1%; resolution rates of 82.8% for contract disputes, 79.5% for explanation and notice of material terms and 78.9% for quality. Verified August 2026. Eligibility and outcomes depend on the facts of each case and the statistics reflect the position at publication, so confirm whether your case can be filed with the Telecommunications Dispute Mediation Committee at tdrc.kr. This article sets out the procedure and is not a substitute for legal advice.
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