[2020 National Audit] Park Young-sun Urges "Caution" in Designating Used Car Sales as a Livelihood-Suitable Industry

Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, is attending the Ministry of SMEs and Startups audit at the Industry, Trade and Energy Committee held at the National Assembly on the 8th. Photo by National Assembly Broadcast Screen Capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] On the 8th, Park Young-sun, Minister of SMEs and Startups, said regarding the designation of the used car sales industry as a livelihood-type suitable industry, "Rather than the issue of designation, it is more important to prevent monopolies in the entire market and enable coexistence between large and small-medium enterprises."

Minister Park made this remark in response to a question from Lee Su-jin, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, during the Ministry of SMEs and Startups' audit at the Industry, Trade, and SMEs Committee held at the National Assembly on the same day, asking for her opinion on "designating the used car sales industry as a livelihood-type suitable industry."

She said, "The used car sales industry exceeds the scale of livelihood-type suitable industries in terms of industrial competitiveness and market size," and added, "In the current situation where online sales dominate in the digital era, it is important to build trust."

The designation of livelihood-type suitable industries is a system that responds to the indiscriminate business expansion of large and medium-sized enterprises by designating the industries and items of small merchants and business operators as livelihood-type suitable industries, imposing penalties and enforcement fines if large enterprises acquire, start, or expand in those industries and items.

The application for designation of the used car sales industry as a livelihood-type suitable industry was made in February last year. In November of the same year, the Korea Commission for Corporate Partnership (KCCP) expressed the opinion that "the used car sales industry has low small-scale nature and protection necessity, and considering consumer welfare, it is inappropriate to designate it as a livelihood-type suitable industry."

Regarding this, Representative Lee said, "Over the past three years, the average annual number of used cars sold by used car dealers is 1.15 million units, with a total of about 38,000 sales employees, resulting in an average monthly sales volume of only 2.5 units per person, indicating the small-scale nature of the used car sales industry," and argued, "Currently, there is no basis for the used car sales industry not to be designated as a livelihood-type suitable industry in terms of small-scale nature, consumer welfare, and protection necessity. A fair review based on clear evidence should be conducted promptly."

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