일본 소비자계약법의 최근 개정동향에 관한 소고

Abstract

Japanese Consumer Contracts Act as a special act of civil law has a set of systems for regulating the process of concluding of consumer contracts and the content of consumer contracts. Regulations on consumer cancellation rights (Article 4 to 7 of the same Act) for the former and Regulations on the nullification of consumer contract clauses for the latter (Article 8 to 10 of the same Act). The Act was enacted in 2000 and implemented in 2001, and the Act was largely amended in 2016 and 2018 while it had not been revised in relation to the substantive law. This amendment is attributable to the increasing number of consumer damages for the elderly due to the aging society, and the diversification of contract methods due to the development of information and communication technology, resulting in new types of consumer damage. In this revision, the results were reflected through a comprehensive analysis of the actual cases of consumer damage, and the comparative method review process was also carried out. In 2016, the reason for exercising the right to cancel the customer was added, the requirement to exercise the right to cancel due to poor notice was eased, the period and effect of the exercise of the consumer cancellation right was changed, and the list of unfair clauses was added. In 2018, there were six additional reasons for exercising the right to cancel consumers, the requirement to exercise the right to cancel when they did not notify of a disadvantage was eased, the list of unfair clauses was added, and the licensee was given an obligation to clarify and equalize the provisions and an obligation to provide information. We do not have a comprehensive civil law that applies to all consumer contracts, such as the Japanese Consumer Contracts Act. Accordingly, some believe that the general law on consumer contracts is necessary, Specifically, the discussion of which method is reasonable should be carefully discussed after a detailed and detailed review of current consumer transactions is preceded. However, the reasons for exercising the cancellation right and invalidating the unfair contract provisions added to the recent revision of the Japanese Consumer Contract Act are expected to be useful under the current law.