Tesla FSD: South Korea consumer complaint filed over ads

Tesla faces scrutiny before the KFTC in South Korea over FSD marketing for Shanghai imports.

A South Korean consumer protection group has filed a formal complaint against Tesla over its Full Self-Driving marketing. Despite high prices, the software is technically unusable on the vast majority of locally sold vehicles.

Andreas Jakobi (translated by Andreas Jakobi), Published 11/04/2026 🇩🇪

E-Mobility

In South Korea, the consumer advocacy organization Citizens United for Consumer Sovereignty is calling for regulatory action against Tesla. A formal complaint submitted to the Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) accuses the US automaker of deceptive marketing regarding its driver-assistance system.

Key Facts:

FSD costs approximately 9.04 million Won (about $6,800) as a one-time purchase in South Korea
Software reportedly operates on only about 20 percent of the local fleet
The cause is a lack of hardware compatibility in models imported from Shanghai

Functionality of the FSD System

The Full Self-Driving (Supervised) system is designed to handle complex driving tasks such as navigation, steering, lane changes, and parking. The software relies on camera-based image processing and neural networks, but consistently requires active driver supervision. Because Tesla distributes the system globally, operation requires region-specific hardware configurations and official approvals from local authorities.

Incompatibility in Imported Models

The dispute centers on a discrepancy between sold software licenses and actual hardware support. According to statements by Tesla's management before parliament, the system operates exclusively on US-produced vehicles in the country. However, since 2023, more than 170,000 delivered vehicles originated from the factory in Shanghai. For the 2025 model year, approximately 99 percent of new registrations were incompatible with the required features. Nonetheless, the manufacturer continued to market the package as fully functional. The consumer advocates are requesting an advertising ban for incompatible vehicle types from the competition authority, administrative fines, and the initiation of investigative proceedings.