전자상거래법상의 거래 플랫폼 규제와 개선방안

Abstract

Consumer Protection Act was supplemented through the revision in 2016. In particular, the revision strengthened obligation and liability of the e-commerce intermediary. It is, however, still insufficient to cover the entire present market system with various commerce platforms emerging. Korean Electronic Commerce Consumer Protection Act presents an excessively long list of regulated subjects and assigns respective obligation and liability to each subject. In practice, relevant public official and legal experts, as well as e-commerce seller or e-commerce intermediary, experience difficulty discerning the liabilities. Thus, overall revision on Korean Electronic Commerce Consumer Protection Act is demanded. First, the list of regulated subjects should be simplified into e-commerce seller, e-commerce intermediary and consumers. Second, a separate business register system should be introduced in order to draw a clear line between e-commerce seller and e-commerce intermediary. Third, Korean Electronic Commerce Consumer Protection Act should not apply to individuals who run e-commerce intermediary without business pursuit. In addition, the emergence of the new types of commerce platforms is another plausible motivation for the revision of Korean Electronic Commerce Consumer Protection Act. For instance, it is necessary for the revised regulation to include the mediation of lease besides sales, and to adjust the time of offering e-commerce seller’s personal information to the consumers in consideration of competitive e-commerce. Also, for the consonance with Korean Personal Information Protection Act, the liability to provide a way for e-commerce intermediary to access the personal information of sellers should be removed from the revision in the case of e-commerce intermediary between individuals.