소비자 개념의 재정립

Abstract

Most countries that have a consumer's definition in the civil law or other laws generally define consumers as "natural persons who act for consumption purposes (or for purposes other than business purposes).” This means that any natural person who has a consumption purpose in the context of an individual legal act may be recognized as a consumer, but it also means that he may not be a consumer (relative consumer concept). In relation to this, "framework act on consumers” generally defines the consumer as "a person who uses goods or services provided by a business person for consumption, or a person who finally uses it for production activities". It is the same as other legislation in that it requires a consumer purpose, but it is a definition based on economics in that it does not require natural person. In other words, the relationship with the natural person or legal person(corporation) as the subject of the rights and obligation is missing, so the　act has failed to define the consumer as a legal entity. For this reason, consumers' categories are ambiguous and the definition of human scope is unclear in individual laws. This is an important task to be solved in the field of consumer law and civil law. Based on this problem consciousness, this paper attempted to redefine the consumer concept that encompasses consumer law and civil law. As a conclusion, it emphasized that it is urgent theoretical task of consumer law and civil law to solve the problem of consumer’s definition under the current "framework act on consumers”, which is adhering to consumption-oriented legislation. The definition of consumer is necessary to be limited to natural persons who act for purposes other than the business purpose and is desirable to be improved to the direction that, if necessary, the category of consumer may be extended to individual or small businesses or non-profit corporations.