Explainer: Why is Toss suing Kakao? How a text message launched a legal war
Published: 05 Feb. 2025, 18:27
Updated: 06 Feb. 2025, 16:41
![The event link that Toss shared through KakaoTalk starting on Jan. 23 in celebration of the Lunar New Year displayed a link as an ″untrusted page″ with a red exclamation mark. [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/06/a5b26f2d-600d-4da3-9468-5b24e04581d2.jpg)
The event link that Toss shared through KakaoTalk starting on Jan. 23 in celebration of the Lunar New Year displayed a link as an ″untrusted page″ with a red exclamation mark. [SCREEN CAPTURE]
Toss is preparing to take legal action against Kakao, alleging that the messaging giant “unjustly restricted” its services during a promotional event.
Kakao has strongly denied the claim, stating that Toss is making “unreasonable demands and requesting special treatment.”
What happened?
The issue arose on Jan. 23, just before the Lunar New Year, when Toss launched a promotional event offering discounts on holiday gifts to users who shared an event link via Kakao’s messaging app, KakaoTalk.
The link, however, was later flagged as an “untrusted page” with a red exclamation mark similar to that of a spam message — something Toss argues could make users question its legitimacy.
“These warnings typically appear when a link is illegal or dangerous,” a Toss official said. “Given Toss’s reputation and credibility, this is an extremely rare and unacceptable situation.”
Toss has historically used Kakao’s sharing application program interface (API), which many advertisers and partner companies also use to distribute promotional messages through KakaoTalk.
Kakao typically permits up to 30,000 message shares per day through its API but has previously granted Toss significantly higher quotas upon request, given Toss’s 20 million monthly active users.
For the latest holiday promotion, Toss once again requested an increase to its sharing limit and explored various options with Kakao, including the possibility of paying an additional fee for the raised quota.
Kakao, however, denied the requests, stating that such large-scale quota increases would no longer be available.
![Toss logo [TOSS]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/06/f8245e1d-7159-4726-8863-6210bb5a0a60.jpg)
Toss logo [TOSS]
Toss’s stance
After Kakao rejected its request, Toss resorted to an alternative method — Kakao's OS sharing function — which directed message recipients to a separate page where they were directed click an additional button to access the event link. However, this resulted in the link being flagged as an untrusted page.
Toss claims this was not the first time such a warning has appeared for its links.
“The same issue occurred last December with regular service messages, including messages on transaction confirmation and digital certificate transmission, as well as even customer service messages, confusing users,” a Toss official said.
The company believes Kakao’s actions were motivated by competition, as Kakao’s financial services like Kakao Bank and Kakao Pay directly compete with Toss’s.
“I was directly told by Kakao that they ‘are limiting [our] large-scale events because we are competitors,’” a Toss official said. “Restricting service for this reason is an abuse of market dominance by a platform used by every citizen.”
“We have submitted multiple pieces of evidence to support our claim and are preparing legal action, including filing a complaint with the Fair Trade Commission.”
![Kakao logo [KAKAO]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/06/5fba4006-d9b1-4e81-a02f-4131aae4ede2.jpg)
Kakao logo [KAKAO]
Kakao’s stance
Kakao strongly denies Toss’s allegations, insisting that its actions were not aimed at restricting a competitor, but rather a necessary response in accordance with company policy.
“The event page was marked as an untrusted page because a surge of user reports was received to our customer service, which automatically triggered our antiabuse system,” a Kakao official explained. “It was not a deliberate action.”
Kakao also defended its denial of Toss’s request for an increased messaging quota, citing past system overload issues and the unsuitability of its API for large-scale promotional events.
“During Toss’s Hangul Day event last October, we granted their request and significantly increased the daily query quota — something we had never done for any other company,” the official said. “However, during the event, the system became overloaded, affecting users. As a result, we determined that continuing to grant exceptionally high quotas, as Toss requested, would not be sustainable.”
“Toss’s events generate an overwhelming amount of messages — far more than any other company,” the official said. “They have already been granted hundreds of times the standard message-sharing quota. To claim that we restricted them out of competition, when the real issue is ensuring KakaoTalk’s service quality, is completely groundless.”
![A pop-up appears reading ″This page requires attention as a report has been received from a user″ when clicking a Toss event message shared via KakaoTalk. Users must then click ″Confirm″ to access the event page. [SCREEN CAPTURE]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/02/06/956d9bcd-ea15-44de-bca7-1e88d6091610.jpg)
A pop-up appears reading ″This page requires attention as a report has been received from a user″ when clicking a Toss event message shared via KakaoTalk. Users must then click ″Confirm″ to access the event page. [SCREEN CAPTURE]
What you need to know
Toss and Kakao compete in industries including finance, payments, mobility and e-commerce. If tensions continue to escalate, the dispute could lead to legal action and even a full-scale conflict between two of Korea’s leading tech firms.
A separate dispute is already brewing between Kakao platform Kakao Mobility and Toss’s mobility subsidiary, Tada, over allegations of driver poaching. Tada claims Kakao Mobility contacted its drivers via phone calls and text messages to persuade them to switch allegiance, even those still under contract.
Given that both companies are not only important customers, but also key business partners to each other, a prolonged conflict could impact their financial performance and revenue.
Toss has said that it will “respond as best as it can if the situation requires legal or regulatory intervention,” while Kakao maintains that “there is no legal issue whatsoever” and that it will “handle the matter according to its policies.”
BY YUN JUNG-MIN,WOO JI-WON [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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