일본의 소비자 보호방안에 대한 소고 – 과징금제도를 중심으로 –

Abstract

Humans are constantly engaged in consumption activities throughout their lives. Regardless of gender, age, residential area, education level, and cultural differences, people participate in economic activities while purchasing various goods and services to satisfy their needs. However, compared to business operators, consumers are often affected by exaggerated advertisements or promotional activities because it is difficult for consumers to obtain accurate and diverse information about products and they are in an inferior position in technical manipulation. In order to reduce the damage caused by this, consumers organize various organizations to seek protection of their rights and interests. In addition, the government stipulates the duties of the state, local governments, business operators, and the roles of consumers and consumer groups, as well as enacting consumer protection laws for the purpose of improving and rationalizing consumer life. In this paper, four laws, "Act on Prohibition of Private Monopolization and Maintenance of Fair Trade", "Financial Instruments and Exchange Act", "Certified Public Accountants Act, and "Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations", for which the penalty system was introduced in Japan, were reviewed. I would like to summarize Through this, it is intended to discover problems with the penalty system adopted as a consumer protection measure in Japan, and to draw implications for finding ways to recover actual damages for individual consumers.