Supreme Court: Coway Hid Nickel Detection in Water Dispensers for 1 Year, Must Compensate Consumers

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Supreme Court has finalized a ruling recognizing Coway's liability for damages for concealing for one year the fact that nickel components were detected in its ice water purifiers.

The Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Noh Jeong-hee) announced on the 20th that it upheld the lower court's ruling ordering Coway to compensate 78 water purifier consumers, including Mr. A, with 1 million won each in the damages lawsuit filed by the 78 plaintiffs against Coway.

In July 2015, Coway received consumer reports and employee notifications that 'silver-colored metallic substances' were appearing in its ice water purifiers and conducted an internal investigation in August of the same year. The investigation revealed that nickel plating had peeled off from the cooling structure (evaporator) of the ice, mixing into the drinking water in the cold water tank and other parts.

Despite this, Coway did not inform consumers who purchased or leased the water purifiers of this fact and only posted a public apology after media reports surfaced in July 2016. A total of 298 consumers, including Mr. A, filed a damages lawsuit against Coway, claiming 3 million won each in compensation.

The first and second trials did not accept the consumers' claims that drinking water containing nickel caused skin abnormalities, allergies, or itching. They ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support a causal relationship between these symptoms and drinking water from the purifier, and thus did not recognize liability for damages under civil law for 'tortious acts.'

However, the courts found that Coway's failure to fulfill its duty to notify consumers of the defect warranted compensation. Since the consumers' right to receive important information was violated, the courts recognized liability for damages under civil law for 'breach of contract.' The compensation amount was set at 1 million won each. The first and second trial courts acknowledged Coway's liability to compensate the 78 consumers who directly entered into sales or rental contracts for the water purifiers but ruled that Coway was not liable to compensate other plaintiffs such as family members who also drank the purifier water.

The Supreme Court found no legal errors in the second trial's judgment and finalized the ruling. The court stated, "Parties to a continuous contract have the obligation to notify the other party in advance if there is a risk of harm to life, body, or health, enabling the other party to choose appropriate measures to avoid the risk or to confirm that reasonable measures have been taken to eliminate the risk."

It added, "Especially when one party to a continuous contract is a manufacturer producing highly technical products in large quantities and the other party is a consumer, it is even more necessary to recognize the manufacturer's duty to notify to resolve adverse effects caused by information asymmetry."

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