Gov’t pushes for wedding companies to disclose prices

[Photo by Yonhap]

The South Korean government is looking to require wedding companies to disclose their prices to ease the burden on prospective couples amid the current high inflation environment.

According to sources from relevant ministries on Sunday, the government recently gathered various opinions from young adults to formulate measures to develop youth-friendly services, which included concerns such as “the cost of getting married is too high” and “many wedding companies do not disclose their prices transparently until the contract is signed.”

According to a survey conducted by a marriage information company of 1,000 individuals who have been married for one to five years, the average cost of marriage excluding housing costs was approximately 63 million won ($47,827) in 2024.

Wedding company sales are growing rapidly. According to big data-based business analysis service platform Fina OPENUB, average sales per wedding venue nationwide totaled around 530 million won in 2023, up 23.8 percent from 428 million won a year ago and more than double the 201 million won in 2020, the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Overall sales at wedding venues nationwide totaled about 65.5 billion won in January 2024, a 40.3 percent surge from the same period a year ago. Seoul (36.2 billion won) accounted for more than half of the total sales, with Gangnam District (10.4 billion won), Yeongdeungpo District (5 billion won), and Seocho District (3.8 billion won) recording particularly large sales volumes.

Several private companies currently operate platforms that compare wedding company prices, but the government believes that that is not enough to help prospective couples make rational consumption choices. There are suggestions that wedding companies should be required to disclose their service prices, including additional fees, on their websites or outdoors where it is easily visbible, to properly guarantee consumer choice.

“Prices should be fully disclosed online so that prospective couples can know the costs before booking a service or visiting companies in person,” Lee Eun-hee, a professor of consumer and child studies at Inha University, said.

The government‘s focus on improving consumer satisfaction with wedding services is attributed to the declining birthrate in the country, with non-marriage considered a key factor in reducing childbirths.

According to Statistics Korea, the top reason for 32.7 percent of those in their 20s and 33.7 percent of those in their 30s not to get married in 2022 lacked the funds to get married, including wedding and housing expenses.