소비자기본법 30년과 소비자법의 구조전환 - 소비자법의 제3의 물결을 위하여 -

Abstract

The history of Korea consumer law may be called 'the history of the Framework Act on Consumers'. In Korea, the first consumer law of which main purpose is consumer protection was realized by the legislation of the Consumer Protection Act in 1980(The First Wave of the consumer law). After the Korean Consumer Agency was established by the overall amendment of the Act in 1986, the consumer law and the consumer administration in Korea was legally and systematically organised. Such an organization affected the legislation of the major consumer laws over the last 20 years(the Second Wave of the consumer law). Then the Consumer Protection Act was overall amended into the Framework Act on Consumers in 2006. The amendment was performed in order to reflect the change of the environment surrounding consumers or the change of the consumer image (from the object of protection to the subject of self-reliance), and to reflect the change of policy-making authority from the Ministry of Finance and Economy to the Korea Fair Trade Commission. Accordingly, the purpose of the Act was changed from 'the protection of consumers' fundamental rights and interests' to 'the promotion of consumers' rights and interests'. This means that the consumer policy is performed on the base of 'consumer sovereignty theory' by the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the policy-making authority in charge of competition policy. From the viewpoint of the above mentioned things, this article aims at discussing the theoretical meaning of the Framework Act on Consumers. It results in the following: The substantial meaning to amend the Consumer Protection Act into the Framework Act on Consumers must be found in the legislation of the consumer private law for realizing the consumer sovereignty or consumers' private rights. It means to convert from 'the consumer law for the administrative regulation' to 'the consumer law for the civil regulation'. If the private rights of consumers is secured, consumers can independently make a decision in the market and realize their own rights(consumer sovereignty). If the condition above continues, it will lead to the maximum of the consumer welfare. Only when these prerequisite conditions are satisfied, the Framework Act on Consumers can be recognized as the Third Wave of the consumer law in Korea.