Image: Tesla Korea
The Seoul Central District Court on Thursday, October 29, threw out a refund suit from 89 Tesla owners who bought the Full Self-Driving option between 2019 and 2022, ruling that Tesla Korea had not breached its contracts in a market still arguing over who actually gets FSD.
According to SBS, the court’s 30th Civil Division rejected every claim in the first-instance case, which the owners filed in December 2024 seeking contract cancellation and repayment after years without Level 5, driverless capability.
Judges held that the FSD option those buyers purchased was not a promise of a car that can drive with no human at all. The court described it as an open-ended deal to deliver supervised features as technology and regulatory approvals allow, covering partial automation that still needs a driver, plus basic Autopilot tools such as lane keeping and Enhanced Autopilot functions such as Summon and Autopark.
Owners also argued that Hardware 3 cars never got the same FSD package Hardware 4 cars received. The court disagreed, saying the option they bought was for the HW3 computers in their vehicles, and that missing an identical HW4 build is not a failure to perform. It pointed to Autopilot and Enhanced Autopilot already delivered at purchase, and to later HW3 updates that added traffic-light and sign recognition plus city driving.
Delays tied to domestic and international rules were not treated as Tesla’s fault either. Buyers knew extra features could take a long time, the court said, and they remain in line for further updates, so it found no defect liability.
Background already shows how uneven Korean access still is. Tesla switched on supervised FSD for eligible U.S.-built cars and later opened an HW3 FSD Supervised v14 Lite path, while China-built Model Y volume that dominates local sales has stayed locked out under separate rules. The company’s Korean fleet had already logged more than 50 million kilometers on supervised FSD by August, and Tesla has opened more local service capacity, including a Jeonju service center.
Tesla has not commented on the decision, and it is not clear yet whether the owners will appeal.
Does this first-instance win change how Korean FSD buyers think about refunds, or will the fight move to appeal?
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