한국에 있어서 소비자보호를 위한 법과 정책

Abstract

In Korea, the Consumer Protection Act was enacted in 1981. The Act

declares that a consumer has seven fundamental rights, it provides the roles of

consumer and consumer organizations, and the duties of state and government

to realize consumer rights and to promote consumer benefits. The most

important duties of state and government are to enact consumer laws and to

develop and enforce consumer protection policies. The Act establishes the

Korean Consumer Protection Board to drive consumer protection policies

effectively and to set up the Consumer Mediation Committee in the Korean

Consumer Protection Board for mediating consumer disputes.

There are various problems that are related to consumer protection, but this

paper will focus only on two major problems: one is the unfair clause of

standard form contracts, and the other is the product liability. In Korea, unfair

clauses are controlled in three stages by the Act of Regulating Standard Form

Contract. First, the clauses are not stated plainly or explained by the proposing

party are excluded from the content of the contract by another party. Second,

the clauses of standard form contracts shall be fairly interpreted by the faith

and fidelity rule. Third, unfair clauses of contracts that are contrary to the

faith and fidelity rule are invalid. The Act prohibits certain undertakings from

using unfair clauses that are against the Act. It also gives the Fair Trade

Commission the power to judge the unfairness of clauses and to command the

undertaking which uses unfair clauses to eliminate or to correct the unfair

clauses. Although the Act has, in the meantime, considerably contributed to

improve the practices of consumer transaction, it encounters criticisms as

follows; First, the criteria which the Act provides to estimate the unfairness of

clauses are not detailed and concrete enough to be applied to concrete cases.