Fair Trade Commission Establishes New Guidelines for Terms and Conditions Review... Specifies Requirements for Review Requests

Scheduled to be implemented from the 22nd

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has specified the eligible business operators who can file requests for unfair contract term reviews to include consumer organizations, the Korea Consumer Agency, and business associations.

On the 17th, the FTC announced that it has abolished the existing guidelines, which had a validity period of three years expiring on September 21, and newly established guidelines containing these details.

The contract term review guidelines set the standards necessary for the FTC's contract term review tasks. Their purpose is to prevent the drafting and circulation of unfair contract terms.

The FTC added guidelines regarding the eligibility of requesters who can file for contract term reviews, the qualifications of business operators subject to review, and cases where the review may not be conducted, which were not included in the previous guidelines.

First, regarding the entities eligible to request contract term reviews, it was specified that "consumer organizations, the Korea Consumer Agency, business associations, and persons with a legal interest related to the contract terms may request a contract term review." Here, "persons with a legal interest" generally refers to customers who have entered into contracts using the relevant contract terms, their successors, guarantors, and so forth. A business operator who, as one party to the contract, proposes to customers the contract terms subject to the review may be the respondent (investigated party) in the contract term review.

The new guidelines also include specific cases where contract term reviews may not be conducted. These include: ▲ when the relevant contract terms have been changed or deleted at the time of the review request; ▲ when the business operator has undergone dissolution, bankruptcy, or closure at the time of the review request; ▲ when it is more effective to handle the matter under other laws such as the Fair Trade Act, the Door-to-Door Sales Act, the Electronic Commerce Act, or the Franchise Business Act, or by other institutions; ▲ when the case is already under litigation in court and an abstract contract term review might unnecessarily influence the court's judgment in a specific dispute, making it preferable for the FTC to refrain from conducting the review.

An FTC official said, "With this revision of the guidelines, we expect to provide clear standards for the public to file unfair contract term review requests and reduce the risk of abuse of review requests by business operators, thereby rationalizing contract term regulation." He added, "The revised standards will take effect from the 22nd."

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