Fair Trade Mediation Agency to be Expanded and Reorganized into Promotion Agency

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] The Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency under the Fair Trade Commission is pushing for reorganization into the 'Fair Trade Promotion Agency.' The plan is to amend the Fair Trade Act to change the name and expand and strengthen its functions.

On the 25th, Shin Dongkwon, head of the Mediation Agency, announced the '2021 Major Business Promotion Plan' containing these details at the Government Complex Sejong.

Director Shin stated, "We will promote the reorganization of the Mediation Agency into the Fair Trade Promotion Agency, which strengthens the function of spreading a fair trade culture, and support the necessary legal amendments."

The Mediation Agency explained that under the current Fair Trade Act, its scope of work is limited to dispute mediation, making it difficult to meet the recent demands for new fair trade-related projects. The goal is to reorganize the Mediation Agency into a Promotion Agency to strengthen the function of 'spreading a fair trade culture,' such as preventive education for business damages and evaluation of fair trade agreement implementation.

Additionally, this year, the 'Franchise Comprehensive Support Center' will be opened to provide customized services to related workers. At the initial occurrence of disputes, professional grievance counseling services will be provided using dispute mediation data, and for businesses not remedied through dispute mediation, support for Fair Trade Commission reporting or litigation will be offered.

Since last year, the Mediation Agency has been expanding the scope of its evaluation work on the implementation of fair trade agreements in the subcontracting sector and promoting system improvements. To efficiently perform evaluation tasks, the agency plans to integrate evaluations across all sectors (franchise, distribution, agency). Fair trade agreements are systems where large corporations and small and medium-sized partner companies promise to refrain from unfair practices and strengthen mutual competitiveness, with the Fair Trade Commission evaluating implementation results and providing incentives.

This year, the newly undertaken 'Consent Decision Implementation Management' task also aims for early stabilization. Consent decision is a system where the Fair Trade Commission swiftly closes cases without confirming allegations of illegality, based on companies' voluntary correction and damage relief. The Mediation Agency is responsible for managing and supervising whether the companies actually implement the voluntary corrections promised through the consent decision.

Director Shin said, "We will build a work system that can enhance the effectiveness of the consent decision system by supplementing the existing implementation inspection method," adding, "Considering that the scope of consent decisions is expected to expand in the future, we will prepare implementation inspection plans reflecting the transaction characteristics of each sector."

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