South Korean Consumer Group Plans KFTC Complaint Alleging Tesla Misled FSD Buyers
A South Korean consumer group plans to file a Korea Fair Trade Commission complaint alleging Tesla marketed Full Self-Driving to buyers of cars that cannot legally run it; Tesla's own figures put eligibility at about 20% of registered Teslas there.
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A South Korean consumer group plans to ask the Korea Fair Trade Commission to intervene over Tesla's Full Self-Driving marketing, alleging the company pitched the paid package to buyers whose cars cannot legally run it. What the group alleges has not been adjudicated; the complaint described in reporting was still being prepared for filing, and no KFTC finding against Tesla is established in the sources reviewed here.
Electrek reported on 4 November, citing Reuters, that Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty planned to file the complaint with the KFTC on Thursday. Reuters reviewed the planned filing, according to that account. Related coverage appears via Investing.com's Reuters wire and The Straits Times.
Who can run FSD in Korea, according to Tesla
The dispute turns on where each car was built. Electrek explains that Model S, Model X and Cybertruck vehicles from US factories enter Korea under the KORUS free-trade framework that recognises US safety standards, and that those are the vehicles that received "FSD (Supervised)" when Tesla switched the feature on in Korea late last year.
Model 3 and Model Y cars sold in Korea come from Giga Shanghai. Without an equivalent China–Korea deal covering the same path, those cars need Korean approval that FSD does not have, Electrek reports. Tesla Korea country manager Seo Young-deuk told lawmakers that FSD works on about 20% of Teslas registered in the country, according to Electrek. The same report says Tesla has sold more than 170,000 Shanghai-built vehicles in Korea since 2023, based on data Tesla provided to the National Assembly, and that sales of those China-made cars grew more than fivefold between 2023 and 2025.
Electrek also notes that, by Tesla's own numbers as characterised in the piece, the ineligibility issue covers 99% of Teslas the company sold in Korea last year—an annual sales slice that sits alongside the roughly 20% registered-fleet eligibility figure from Seo's testimony. Those are Tesla-sourced figures reported by Electrek, not independent census counts.
What the group alleges
For years Tesla charged Korean buyers a one-time 9.043 million won (about $6,726) for FSD, then moved to a 150,000 won (about $112) monthly subscription in August, Electrek reports. The planned complaint points to a "coming soon" promotion and a demo video shot on Korean roads that, the group says, did not make clear FSD would work only on a small slice of the cars Tesla was selling.
Choi Young-suk, who heads automotive issues at the group, is quoted by Electrek as saying Tesla "generated substantial revenue by selling an expensive driver-assistance system to mass-market buyers who cannot use it for even a single day." The group wants a temporary order stopping FSD marketing for ineligible cars, plus fines and a referral to state investigators, according to that report.
Electrek adds that a KFTC official told Reuters the agency opened a probe into Tesla's FSD advertising earlier this year and has received written responses from the company. Tesla did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment, per Electrek. Separately, Electrek notes the complaint comes about a week after a Seoul court threw out a refund case from Korean owners who paid for FSD—another proceeding, not a ruling on this new planned KFTC filing.
What this is not
This story is an unadjudicated claim and a planned regulatory complaint, not a completed KFTC decision or a court finding that Tesla broke the law in the marketing described. Whether the commission opens or expands enforcement, and what remedy if any follows, remains ahead. Buyers and investors should treat the 20% eligibility figure and the revenue claims as reported claims and company testimony, not as proven consumer-harm totals.
The practical takeaway from the cited reporting is narrow: a consumer group says Tesla sold FSD access to owners of China-built cars that cannot legally use it in Korea, plans to ask the KFTC to act, and points to Tesla's own eligibility testimony as evidence that most registered Teslas there sit outside the usable set.