"Exemption from Punishment for Lodging Operators Deceived by Youth... Law Amendment to Be Promoted Within the Year"

Ombudsman to Reduce Punishment for 'Unfairly Treated' Business Owners
Ministry of Gender Equality Responds: "Amendment to Youth Protection Act"
Implementation Inspection Team Formed... Regulatory Improvement Underway

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In the future, if a youth deceives a business owner by using a forged ID to use lodging facilities, the punishment for the business owner is expected to be exempted or reduced.

The Small and Medium Business Ombudsman announced on the 22nd that it received a response from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family stating that they plan to improve related regulations to exempt lodging business owners from administrative sanctions when youths illegally use lodging facilities with forged IDs.

Previously, even if a youth deceived a business owner with a forged or altered ID when purchasing alcohol or cigarettes or entering prohibited establishments, administrative sanctions such as business suspension were uniformly imposed on the business owner.

Because of this, there were many criticisms that holding innocent business owners, who had sufficiently verified the youth's identity, responsible was excessive.

As this criticism gained social consensus, the Ombudsman has been consulting with relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family since 2019 regarding this issue.

As a result, each ministry has been revising laws to exempt administrative sanctions when there is no fault on the part of the business owner in cases of youth ID forgery or alteration.

Measures to reduce business owner responsibility for alcohol and cigarette purchases have already been implemented, and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recently amended laws to exempt administrative sanctions for karaoke room owners as well.

However, through compliance inspections, the Ombudsman confirmed that improvements promised by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in 2019 regarding lodging facilities have not yet been made, and has resumed consultations.

At that time, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family promised to reduce business owner responsibility if they were deceived by youths using stolen IDs or if youths booked lodging facilities separately by gender and then cohabited.

Accordingly, the Ombudsman held consultations twice with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in 2021 and 2022, and the ministry conveyed on the 6th that they intend to reflect this in amendments to the Youth Protection Act within this year. In particular, since lodging reservations can be made via mobile and online platforms, business owners have suffered significant damages due to forged or altered IDs.

Meanwhile, since October 2021, the Ombudsman has formed a compliance inspection team to verify whether the promised regulatory improvements are being properly implemented.

When social interest in an issue declines or responsible officials are transferred, institutions that promised regulatory improvements often fail to properly implement them. The compliance inspection team carries out △ compliance inspections of improvement tasks △ additional consultations on unimplemented tasks △ regular meetings of the Ombudsman Committee.

Park Ju-bong, the Ombudsman, stated, "Regulatory improvement ultimately requires the relevant ministries and institutions to take action," and added, "We will continue to monitor through compliance inspections to ensure that regulatory improvements do not end in words but are actually realized."

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