Approval of 15 Regulatory Special Cases Including Dietary Supplement Recommendation and Sales Services

Simplification of Procedures such as Omission of Expert Committee and Written Review by Special Committee
"Next Sandbox to Identify and Resolve Regulatory Issues in Korean New Deal"

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on the 27th that it has approved 15 regulatory sandbox cases, including personalized health functional food recommendation and sales services.

The ministry explained that it accelerated regulatory innovation by applying a fast-track procedure such as written deliberation due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19). Going forward, it plans to implement regulatory sandboxes to identify and resolve regulatory difficulties in the digital and green New Deal industries.

According to the ministry, at the 3rd Regulatory Sandbox Deliberation Committee (Special Committee), if the cases such as health functional food recommendation and sales services and shared beauty salon services were the same or similar to those approved in the 1st and 2nd Special Committees, the expert committee review was omitted and the special committee was held in writing to shorten the processing period.

Generally, sandbox projects take about 2 to 3 months from submission to approval by the special committee, but at the 3rd special committee, approval was granted within an average of one month through expedited processing.

Including the 15 projects approved at the 3rd special committee (14 demonstration special cases and 1 temporary permit), a total of 35 regulatory difficulties for converged new products and services have been resolved this year.

Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

First, at the 3rd special committee, 10 companies including Korea Yakult completed demonstration special cases for personalized health functional food recommendation and sales. These companies applied for a service that repackages health functional foods into small portions (dividing various products into one to several servings for consumption at a time).

The ministry expects that through this demonstration, consumers will be able to purchase the necessary ingredients in a customized manner, reducing excessive intake and misuse.

Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

Companies such as Bentle Space, Archive Corporation, and Virture Live applied for demonstration special cases for shared beauty salon services.

A shared beauty salon is a business where multiple hairstylists independently manage their own operations within one salon, sharing equipment and facilities to save startup costs.

The ministry expects that the additional approval of shared beauty salon services will expand the sharing economy in the beauty sector.

Additionally, the Ministry of Health and Welfare plans to start revising laws to allow shared beauty salon services within next year.

Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

'Glam' received approval for a demonstration special case for digital signage advertising services on electric bus windows.

This service plays videos using light from light-emitting diodes (LEDs) installed between the driver's side window of electric buses to broadcast public information and commercial advertisements.

Source: Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy

'Powercube Korea' received a temporary permit for electric vehicle charging services through metered outlets.

This business provides electric vehicle charging services through outlets that use the same specifications as general outlets but can charge users based on the amount of electricity used.

Until now, the enforcement decree of the Electricity Business Act only stipulated plug-type chargers as registration requirements for electric vehicle charging businesses, making it difficult to utilize metered outlets.

The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the National Institute of Technology and Standards announced that they plan to complete the institutionalization of metered outlets within this year.

Seong Yun-mo, Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy. (Photo by Yonhap News)

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Sung Yun-mo evaluated, "This deliberation committee was the first written deliberation, and it is meaningful in that it shortened the processing period through expedited processing to accelerate regulatory innovation and minimized offline meetings in accordance with the social distancing level 2 quarantine guidelines while resolving corporate regulations."

Minister Sung said, "In the future, the sandbox will focus on identifying and resolving regulatory difficulties for new industries related to the Korean New Deal such as digital and green New Deal. We plan to actively discover related tasks for all 180,000 member companies in cooperation with the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry."

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