중국 개정 「消费者权益保护法」상 징벌적 손해배상에 관한 연구

Abstract

The revised “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Consumer’s Rights and Interests (Consumer Protection Law(2014)” came into effect on March 15 2014, which is International Consumer Protection Day. They are Protecting personal information, the policy of recall for defective products, the reversal of burden of proof, the right to return the commodities within seven days of receipt, the liability of the provider of the online transaction platform, increasing the penalties on business operator’s fraudulent behaviour. The Chinese Government introduced ‘the punitive damages’ into the consumer protection law(article 49) in 1994. Punitive damages is originated from Britain and developed in America. It has been playing an important role for criticism on the malignancy of illegal violator, punishment or repression occurrences in the future. But the article 49 is no longer sufficient to deter business operators’ unlawful behaviour because of a small amount of compensation. The article 55 of Consumer Protection Law(2014) addresses this problem. It raises the amount of compensation to three times of the purchase price and set minimum compensation at Rmb 500. In addition, it specifies that if business operators knowingly provide defective goods/services for consumers which result in the death/serious damage to the health of consumers or other victims, the victims might have the right to demand from the business operators punitive damages of up to twice the losses suffered. In this paper, I would like to analyse and review the main content relating to the Punitive Damages under §55. I have studied in three parts : The first, for what purpose did China revise the clause of punitive damages in Consumer Protection Law(2014). The second, what are conditions and effects in applying the punitive damages. Lastly, what Chinese various points of dispute and experiences can give Korean legislation and companies which don’t get used to that punitive damages. It is expected to be change and develop our consumer protection system through introduction of punitive damages.