Plastic Surgery Apps

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Smartphone apps offering low-cost plastic surgery and related medical services have come under scrutiny over concerns of illegal brokering. Prosecutors have indicted doctors as well as app providers in a clampdown on the practice.

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This is a smartphone app through which coupons for various types liposuction, botox injection, and other cosmetic procedures are sold. Providers of such smartphone apps were found to have received commissions between 15 and 20% from the clinics each time a patient was secured.

[Soundbite] Hwang Eun-yeong(Uijeongbu District Prosecutors Office) : "The contract says profit distribution entails a certain percentage of commission per sale, and most had separate side letters."

Between 2012 and 2016, these app companies reportedly received 2.7 billion won in commissions from the listed hospitals. The prosecution said that the app companies had exaggerated the number of coupon buyers and fabricated purchase reviews. However, the app developers are denying all charges, claiming that the apps are not illegal, but only a new form of advertisement.

[Soundbite] App Provider(Voice modified) : "Our advertisements provide introductions to hundreds of hospitals, and users who access this page choose a hospital they like. We are not involved at all in this process."

The prosecution believe that these app providers have violated the Medical Act, by receiving commissions of certain percentages through their contracts with the hospitals and referring patients. Three app developers and 33 doctors who asked them to sell coupons have been indicted without detainment.