Citizen Groups Urge Full Opening of Used Car Market to Enhance Consumer Rights

[Asia Economy Reporter Changhwan Lee] Civic groups have issued a statement urging the full opening of the domestic used car market to enhance consumer rights.

On the 26th, the Transportation Solidarity (Citizen Transportation Safety Association, Transportation Culture Movement Headquarters, Saemaeul Transportation Volunteer Corps, Automobile Citizens' Union, Kind Transportation Volunteer Corps, Living Transportation Citizens' Solidarity) released a statement saying, "The Used Car Sales Industry Development Council, launched to conclude whether to allow the completed car industry to enter the used car sales market, which has been stalled for three years, has been in discussion for almost three months but has yet to reach an agreement."

The Transportation Solidarity stated, "Although the council was launched with a deadline to reach a conclusion by the end of August, the situation remains stagnant without any concrete results announced so far," and urged, "If a final conclusion is not reached by the end of August, the agenda should be immediately handed over to the Ministry of SMEs and Startups to open the market."

They added, "The parties involved in the Used Car Sales Industry Development Council should prioritize how much they can enhance consumer rights over their own interests and reach a final agreement within this month as originally planned."

Furthermore, they emphasized, "The development and trust-building of the sales industry can only be achieved by creating a market that prioritizes consumer protection, which is the sole option both quantitatively and qualitatively. All parties should actively engage in discussions with this understanding," and added, "The completed car sales industry should also share and transplant the advanced systems and sales know-how of the new car market to the existing used car sales industry to create a market where everyone can coexist."

Meanwhile, the Transportation Solidarity started an online petition campaign in April, urging the full opening of the used car market to protect consumer rights, the biggest victims in the used car market, and to collect cases of damage from used car transactions. The petition campaign attracted high interest, surpassing 100,000 participants within just one month of its launch.

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