'Exaggeration and Anxiety' Created to Conclude Funeral Service Contracts Also Constitutes Unfair Customer Inducement Practices

Fair Trade Commission Issues Administrative Notice on Partial Amendment to 'Consumer Protection Guidelines in Prepaid Installment Transactions'

[Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 13th that it will publicly notify the partial amendment of consumer protection guidelines in prepaid installment transactions until the 1st of next month.

The Fair Trade Commission broadly added various cases that may constitute unfair customer inducement acts in prepaid installment transactions to this guideline.

While the current guideline only presents "excessive benefit provision" as a type of unfair customer inducement, the amendment proposes various types such as "unfair benefit provision" and "customer inducement by deception," based on actual cases.

An example related to the obligation to notify changes in important information was also newly established. When important information of a mutual aid company changes, the company must notify consumers, but there have been cases of omission, so examples of cases that mutual aid companies may easily overlook were newly added.

When a mutual aid company merges, from the consumer's perspective of the merged company, it is the same as the change of the mutual aid company's trade name, so the consumer must be notified. Also, if there is a change in the individual consumer's advance payment preservation institution during the merger process, the consumer must be notified.

A Fair Trade Commission official said, "Through this amendment, by presenting various cases that may fall under the Installment Transactions Act and the Fair Trade Act, we expect to induce mutual aid companies to voluntarily comply with the law and proactively prevent consumer damage."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.