중국 소비자권익보호법 개정의 의의 - 한국 소비자법제와의 비교를 중심으로

Abstract

25th October 2013, “A Revised Bill of The Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law” has been passed at the 5th meeting of Standing Committee of National People's Congress in China. It is the first revision of Law since its enactment in 1993. It is expected that laws and institutions for consumers in China would greatly improve through the revision, in that a variety of devices with which the rights and interests of consumers could be protected substantially are equipped. More specifically, the facts that the obligations of undertakings has been materialized, that the grounds and requirements for civil lawsuit has been specified so that private enforcement through civil actions may be activated, and that the new regulations for emerging trade areas in which there was no rules has been created in order to regulate the market reality more properly, support the significance of the revision. However, a kind of tension within the Chinese Consumer Rights and Interests Protection Law seems to be inevitable because of the characteristics of Chinese economy system, i.e. 'socialist' market economy, which might be limitations to a certain extent in enforcing the Law effectively. These limitations would be summarized as two points; one is that there is no core agent for policy implementation and law enforcement in Chinese government, the other is that there is a need to invigorate the activities of civilian consumer organizations. Considering Korean experience in Consumer Law, the existence of the core agent who leads the implementation of policies and laws for consumer protection is critical for the development of Consumer Law, and the institutional foundations on which the civilian consumer organizations could grow spontaneously is necessary for ultimately solving consumer problems.