최근 공정거래 관련 민사 판결의 회고와 분석

Abstract

This article deals with the recently sentenced civil judgment of the Supreme Court on fair trade. In recent years, civil cases where issues related to fair trade are problematic have been increasing significantly, but the academic interest of the Fair Trade Act does not seem to be great. However, in the civil judgment, the victim's liability and scope for damages to the perpetrator are dealt with from the front, so the civil judgment is significant in terms of relief for victims of violations of the Fair Trade Act. Furthermore, in civil judgments, since judgments are made on legal issues that cannot be dealt with in administrative judgments, analysis of civil judgments is essential to properly understand the position of the Supreme Court on fair trade. Accordingly, nine of the civil judgments related to fair trade recently sentenced by the Supreme Court were selected to introduce facts and Supreme Court judgments, and my personal opinion was added. Through the above civil judgment, the implications are as follows. First of all, it can be seen that the Supreme Court sees collusion as a serious offense. The Supreme Court seems to have made a policy decision to prevent collusion through individual directors' liability for damages, considering the "Union Steel ruling" that acknowledged the CEO's violation of the monitoring obligation and the "Daewoo Engineering & Construction ruling" that acknowledged the outside directors' violation of the monitoring obligation. Next, it can be seen that the Supreme Court is taking an active attitude toward protecting the economically weak. In particular, the ruling recognizing the franchise headquarters' obligation to notify restrictions under the franchise operation law and the ruling on the scope of liability for damages caused by the franchise headquarters' provision of false exaggerated information are notable in that the Supreme Court actively interpreted the franchise business. Lastly, it is also worth noting that the Supreme Court approved a foreign judgment ordering punitive damages. However, there is still an unclear part about the meaning of the above judgment, so it is necessary to pay attention to the subsequent case.