메타버스 시대의 도래와 소비자보호법의 입법과제 - 온라인 플랫폼의 약관과 약관규제법의 과제를 중심으로 -

Abstract

The subject of application under the Regulation of Standardized Contracts Act involves terms and conditions unilaterally set by one party in advance, and the target for regulation is the party presenting such terms to the counterparty. However, cases have arisen where entities, such as the metaverse or online platforms, define the legal relationships between parties and present them to those parties without being a direct party to the contract. This has raised the question of whether the contract content and the operating business can be considered as terms under the Regulation of Standardized Contracts Act and whether the operator qualifies as a business entity under this law. In the Supreme Court ruling on the Booking.com case, the court upheld the lower court’s decision, denying the operator’s status as a business entity under the Regulation of Standardized Contracts Act. However, in the Agoda case, the court recognized the operator as a business entity based on its substantial role as a contracting party. This judgment on Booking.com demonstrates that the Regulation of Standardized Contracts Act has not effectively responded to new types of transactions that have emerged. The original intent of the Act is to protect the weaker party in a contract who, despite being a contracting party, does not participate in drafting the terms and lacks bargaining power. Yet, limiting the application solely to contracting parties means that operators, who exert substantial control over contract content, are not regulated. Therefore, there is a need to amend the Regulation of Standardized Contracts Act to ensure that its legislative intent is fully reflected, taking into account the evolving nature of transactions. Suggested measures include removing the requirement that the definition of terms and business entities must be limited to contracting parties or including operators who create and apply terms to the parties without being contracting parties as subjects of regulation.