A Study on the Dispute of Product Liability in Korean Importers

수입업자의 제조물책임(PL) 분쟁에 관한 연구

Since enactment of the Product Liability Act(PLA) on July 2002, Enterprises in Korea should be insured the Product Liability under the Act. Therefore they had to make a special team and organize it to match with the Act. However, some enterprises didn't follow and prepare the team for the dispute resolution. For example, in America, many enterprises had been attacked the PLA and in Japan, as well. but Korea is rare for the PLA. Thus, this is to research the PLA for protecting the disputes. Upon this study, 1 would like to suggest some issues and a revision of the PLA. Those are the purpose of my research. In this study, it consists of 5 chapters for achieving the purpose of the research. Introduction of this study is mentioned in Chapter 1, and Chapter 2 is for outline of the PLA in Korea. At Chapter 3, the cases are analyzed in the disputes of importers to address important things we have to check. After the analysis, resolution methods in general on import practices are suggested at Chapter 4. Also, this study is summarized at Chapter 5 including further research. In this research, 1 find out complex of Product Liability insurance and issues related with PLA. For protecting the issues and disputes; importers should prepare a agreement of arbitration during the preparation of contracts. Nothing can be better than prevention on any disputes, but they can be happened sometimes without any intentions or by mistake. Solving these issues, the resolution methods of this research are the most valuable. The mediation and the negotiation do not force any legal matters. So, the dispute through them does not have a positive resolution, and the effectiveness of them is very low. Due to the resolution of issues, arbitration is a desirable resolution. In Korea, most people do not know about the arbitration due to the lack of understanding of arbitration. Currently arbitration related with Product Liability has not been followed up promptly because procedures and judgement from a court take for a long time. In sum, in order to solve the disputes properly, they should be supported by the arbitration system to concrete essential objectives, so to speak, protection of the victim and the improvement of arbitration. In addition, the systematic arrangements would be required to carry out all the methods above mentioned. Those are for manufacturers, importers, and customers for the dispute resolution.