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No.498 2005.12.01 Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations
Seminar Held to Memorize 10th Consumers’ Day

Press Release No. 498, Issued on 1 Dec. 2005

Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations
   - Seminar Held to Memorize 10th Consumers’ Day

YMCA Credit Society Campaign Secretariat
   - Diverse credit economics education programs conducted for 3rd year senior high
      students preparing for college examinations

Seoul YMCA Citizens’ Mediation Center
   - Class Action System Should Be Integrated into the Consumer Protection Act


Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations

Seminar Held to Memorize 10th Consumers’ Day

 Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations will hold a seminar to commemorate the 10th Consumers’ Day at the Auditorium, 4th floor, Seoul YWCA Building at Myung-dong at 2:30pm on December 1, 2005 (Thu.). This event is held each year to celebrate Consumers Day (3 December). This year’s theme is “Internet and the Consumer”.

<10th Consumers’ Day Seminar - Internet and the Consumer>
- Date: 14:30 pm, December 1, 2005 (Thu.)
- Venue: Seoul YWCA Building Auditorium (4th floor)
- Presided by: Kim Eun-ki (Prof. Law, Korea Cyber University)

○ Themes:
        Theme 1: Status and Prospects of Internet-based Consumer Movements
        Theme 2: Damages inflicted on consumers via the Internet and solutions

○ Nominated panel discussion by:
        Kim Yong-ja (Prof. Consumer Economics, Sookmyung Women’s University)
        Jeon Eung-hwi (Expert counsel, Green Consumer Network)
        Kim Yun-tae (Secretary General, Korea On-Line Shopping Association)

○ Summary Discussion

▶ Contact: Lee Jeong-su, Planning and Research Manager (02-774-4050)


YMCA Credit Society Campaign Secretariat

Diverse credit economics education programs conducted for 3rd year senior high students preparing for college examinations
- Credit economics skills promoted and reasonable consumer behavior cultivated through credit economics education at schools, credit fairs and credit experience schools -

 Diverse credit economics education programs are being held by regional YMCAs across the country for graduating class students of junior and senior high schools who have completed aptitude tests for college education.
 The YMCA, which has implemented the Teenager Credit Education Campaign ‘Credit is Money?!’ since 2002, will continue its credit education programs (including credit experience schools, credit fairs, and festivals) until the end of December for graduating class students of senior high schools who are preparing for employment or advanced education.

 Seoul YMCA will hold ‘Mobile Credit Education, Money School’ programs, visiting over 5,000 students at 14 junior and senior high schools until December 16, starting at Bosung Girls’ Middle School on November 30. The education program, conducted by Seoul YMCA Credit Economics Education and Samsung Credit Card Instructors, will address issues concerning money, consumption and credit in an effort to foster the students’ conception of credit economics and to cultivate the ability to manage money in a sound manner and lead a reasonable consumer life.
 Gyeongju YMCA will hold credit education classes for 1,000 “soon-to-be-citizens” graduating from five senior high schools, from December 2 to 7. Credit education classes will also be held by YMCAs in Gwangju, Yeosu, Guri, Gimhae, Asan, Anyang, Icheon, Cheonan, and Jinju for senior high school graduating class students and teenagers until the end of December.

 Daegu YMCA will hold credit fairs on December 17. Daegu YMCA has aroused a great response by organizing its teenager credit education programs with festive exhibitions and credit games.
Credit game is a credit education forum where students undergo training in signing their sales slips at Y-partner shops and earning credit money from part-time jobs and credit quiz games, simulating the repayment of credit with a “credit card” issued at the beginning of the program. The programs provide entertainment for the teenagers through dance and singing performances.

 Gimhae YMCA will hold a credit education fair program at an outdoor exhibition center in Sureungwon, Gimhae on December 10. The program will provide an opportunity for students to experience credit transactions, including the credit golden bell quiz game and a credit card issuing forum, etc.
Mokpo YMCA is attracting attention with its credit experience school, which will be held for three weeks from November 28 for graduating class students of senior high schools. It will provide four rooms hosting a Projection, Information Exhibition, Experience and Credit Quiz to help the students to acquire an understanding of their own spending habits and personally participate in credit brain writing and credit OX quiz games, as well as learning things that will be useful to them in their life as adult citizens.

▶ Contact: Seo Yeong-kyeong, Team Leader, and Oh Ji-yeong, Secretary
                  (02-725-1401, 011-387-1401)


Seoul YMCA Citizens’ Mediation Center

Class Action System Should Be Integrated into the Consumer Protection Act

- ‘Introducing A class action system without providing the right to claim damage compensation’ is mere lip service; Are you going to duplicate the useless Product Liability Act with the Proposed Amendment to the Consumer Protection Act?

- A class action system should be introduced to remedy and prevent the damages inflicted on consumer groups; As the National Assembly Finance and Economy Committee Banking Sub-committee intends to introduce a collective lawsuit system into the proposed amendment to the Consumer Protection Act, it will be impossible to alleviate the damages inflicted on consumer groups.

According to the National Assembly and the Ministry of Finance and Economy, It was reported on the 28th that the government and the ruling party have agreed to pass the amendment to the Consumer Protection Act to introduce a collective lawsuit action. Seoul YMCA, which has steadily insisted on the introduction of a class action system for decades, has expressed its disappointment and serious concern over the current amendment to the Consumer Protection Act, as the government and ruling party are going to introduce only lip service legislation with a name-only collective lawsuit system that omits all of the key provisions required to address the nature of collective damages. The proposed ‘collective lawsuit’ system includes a difficult procedure for obtaining court permission to file a collective lawsuit only while excluding the consumers’ right to claim for collective damage compensation. This will be a meaningless piece of legislation under which consumers will have no motivation to file lawsuits.

In other words, there will be no merit for a large number of consumers inflicted with small amounts of damages, a characteristic nature of consumer damages, to apply for a court injunction to prohibit the defendant business’s wrongdoings, if they have to satisfy the difficult requirements of registering a victims’ organization, of obtaining advance court permission and of bearing legal expenses and court proceedings for many years, without the right to claim damage compensation under circumstances where damages have already been inflicted. It will be a nominal consumer protection measure without any actual effect, and far inferior to those contended by diverse consumers’ campaigns or recall requests.  Nonetheless, reporting by the media has given the impression that this bill would strengthen the local consumer protection system and that consumers would easily obtain compensation for damages. This constitutes a serious deception of the consumers.

Many hoped the current participation government would introduce a class action system, something which has been strongly advocated by the YMCA Citizens’ Mediation Center and numerous other NGOs for decades. However, it is devastating to see the government and various political parties delay the legislation for such absurd reasons as immature timing, abuse of actions, and a shrinking economy. Whenever new consumer related legislation is considered, ‘abuse of actions’ (lawsuits) is raised in opposition. In the case of the Product Liability Act, which has been in force for three years, a meaningless law was introduced after wasting more than 10 years with such absurd reasoning as ‘businesses will be bankrupted by abuse of actions’ or the idea that ‘action abuse must be prevented’. Only four lawsuits were filed across the country in a two-year timeframe, and there have been no cases where consumers actually won. This is a good example that demonstrates how our legal system operates where consumer protection is concerned.

Under a trend of policy guidelines where advance regulation over business activities are being mitigated and economic orders are being left to the market autonomy, it was already clear some decades ago that systems should be introduced to redress consumer damages retroactively. Small amount damages are repeatedly inflicted on many consumers who lack uniting force and economic power under the current economic structure of mass production and mass consumption. However, it is rather difficult to seek solutions that will recover their collective rights under conventional civil proceedings or legal principles which are based on individual claims or lawsuits.
In other words, when large numbers of consumers fall victim to small amount damages they cannot afford the time, effort and cost required for individual lawsuits. Furthermore, as they lack in expertise or information, the principle of equality among lawsuit parties is not realized as individual consumers remain helpless before powerful large businesses or state power. As such, civil society conflicts and disputes are left unattended though they take place continuously in our society because the introduction of class action system legislation has been delayed by unsupported notions of immature timing or the feared abuse of lawsuits. It also clearly shows that the government’s economic policy is biased in favor of businesses.

We strongly urge the government and political parties to introduce a real class action system that will contribute to the resolution of consumer damages in the market and enhance the quality competitiveness and responsibility of business production activities while immediately scrapping the currently proposed collective action system, which is highly superficial and nominal, if they are really interested in addressing consumer safety incidents and the collective consumer damages incurred on a daily basis by food and other staple items. The government and political parties should bear the responsibility for the inconvenience and losses caused by consumer damages, which will be repeated over and over again if they fail to introduce a class action system by consoling themselves with the erroneous idea that the superficial collective action system being proposed by the government will establish a real legal basis for consumer protection.

▶ Contact: Kim Hui-kyeong, Secretary (02-725-1400)



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