Assemblyman Min Hyung-bae's Proposed 'Large-scale Distribution Business Act' Passes National Assembly

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] The amendment to the "Act on Fair Transactions in Large-Scale Distribution Business" (hereinafter referred to as the Large-Scale Distribution Business Act), jointly reviewed with the proposal by Representative Go Yong-jin and originally proposed by Representative Min Hyung-bae (The Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Gwangsan-eul), passed the National Assembly plenary session on the 24th as the alternative bill of the Political Affairs Committee.

The bill proposed by Representative Min primarily prohibits large-scale distributors from unfairly restricting business hours of franchisees entrusted by brand headquarters.

Until now, franchisees who did not have direct contracts with large-scale distributors had no protection measures.

This is because the distribution structure involves the distributor contracting with the brand headquarters, which then contracts with the franchisees.

There was an issue where franchisees' requests to shorten business hours due to unavoidable reasons such as medical treatment were not accepted.

In response, Representative Min expanded the scope of the prohibition on unfair business hour restrictions from store lessees to those entrusted with sales from lessees.

From now on, large-scale distributors violating this regulation will be subject to corrective orders or fines ranging from 10 million KRW to 500 million KRW depending on the severity.

Representative Min said, "I expect the passage of this law to enhance the protection of the rights and interests of small franchisees," and added, "We will do our best to improve laws and systems to support small merchants and small business owners who have been struggling daily due to COVID-19."

Meanwhile, the amendment to the Large-Scale Distribution Business Act also includes a provision requiring large-scale distributors to pay the purchase price within 60 days when conducting direct purchase transactions.

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