"Excessive Punitive Administrative Regulations... Over 520,000 Annual Prosecutions on Average"

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] As excessive punitive administrative regulations increase, it has been claimed that prosecutions due to violations of administrative regulations are twice as many as prosecutions under general criminal law.

On the 29th, Chung Manki, Chairman of the Korea Industrial Alliance Forum (KIAF), stated this at the 11th Industrial Development Forum and the 16th Automotive Industry Development Forum held at the Automobile Hall in Seocho-gu, Seoul, under the theme "Current Status, Issues, and Improvement Tasks of Punitive Systems."

Punitive administrative regulations refer to administrative regulations that impose penalties or business suspensions beyond the minimum scope on companies violating regulations. This includes cases under the Automobile Management Act where manufacturers are fined even if they voluntarily recall vehicles due to non-compliance with safety standards.

Chairman Chung emphasized, "From 2015 to 2019, prosecutions due to violations of administrative regulations averaged about 520,000 cases annually, with the prosecution rate reaching about twice that of general criminal law," adding, "As the number of administrative regulation violators increased, the proportion of people with criminal records in the total population doubled from about 13% in 1996 to about 26% in 2016."

He pointed out that since the introduction of the punitive damages system in the 2011 Act on the Fairness of Subcontract Transactions (Subcontract Act), laws imposing excessive administrative and criminal liabilities beyond civil responsibility have rapidly increased.

Chairman Chung added, "More than 20 laws, including the Act on the Protection of Dispatched Workers, the Act on Fair Transactions in Agency Deals, and the Personal Information Protection Act, already impose damages of 3 to 5 times the amount."

However, regarding the Fair Trade Act, he emphasized that among the 34 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), only 14 countries including South Korea impose criminal penalties for violations of the law, while the remaining 20 countries either have no criminal provisions or only impose criminal penalties for bid rigging under criminal law.

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