1. Reasons for Amendment
In March, the Installment Transactions Act was revised to strengthen consumer protection by introducing an obligation for the notification related to advance payments and establishing/improving grounds for imposing administrative fines; thus, this amendment aims to specify matters delegated by the Act in the Enforcement Decree and reflect the demand for other amendments in response to revisions of other Acts.
2. Major Provisions
A. Permit to use consumer information to fulfill the notification obligation (Article 22)
- In principle, the current Act prohibits business operators from using or providing consumer information without permission but entrusts the Presidential Decree to determine exceptional cases, such as when it is unavoidable for the performance of contracts; so specify “the cases where information about consumers is used to fulfill the notification obligation under Article 27-2 (1) of the Act” as an exception to prohibited acts.
B. Revise standards for imposing administrative fines for violations of the Act (Attached Table 4)
- Set the amount to be imposed according to the cumulative number of violations (1st to 3rd) subject to administrative fines that have been increased or newly established according to the revision of the Act and divide the criteria for their imposition.
C. Specify the criteria for the repetition of violations of Acts related to the imposition of suspension of business (Article 27)
- In cases where a business operator is subject to business suspension for repeated violations despite a corrective action order, define the standard for the repetition of a violation as “if it is repeated more than once within three years from the date of corrective action.”
D. Revise other matters (Article 12, etc.)
- Reflect the change in clause numbers and contents according to the revision of the reporting provisions of the Installment Transactions Act.
- Reflect the change in clause numbers and contents according to the revision of other Acts including the Act on External Audit of Stock Companies.
