• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.39
• /
• pp.428-472
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to find that how the principles of Fair Labelling and Advertising Act(called 'FLAA' hereinafter) apply to the unfair comparative labelling and advertising activities, as compared with deceptive and misleading, by analyzing the related judicial precedents for 7 years since FLAA enacted, The exact 17 precedents of Fair Trade Commission were analyzed to be judged the unfair comparative labelling and advertising activities, and partly also deceptive, falsified and exaggerated, which include in overlapping 5 comparative counterparts, 11 comparative standards, 7 comparative contents and 4 comparative methods in the unfairness types of comparison. Conclusively, it is needed that the unfairness of comparative labelling and advertising activities should be multiply considered in the concepts of deception, false or exaggeration and slanderousness, to more clearly apply to the facts and to more sufficiently protect consumers from the misleading environments.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.49-72
• /
• 2009

Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), one of the Government agencies, has been preparing a standard model form of Exclusive Contract for Entertainment Management (hereinafter referred to as "Exclusive Contract") to eliminate some types of unfairness that placed entertainers at disadvantage such as forced PR activities or activities without payment, excessive privacy infringement, and exemption of payment after the termination of the exclusive contract. The said Exclusive Contract was drafted by The Korean Commercial Arbitration Board (the "KCAB") in association with the Korean Entertainment Law Society (the "KELS") and KCAB has persistently persuaded Corea Entertainment Management Association (the "CEMA"; mainly actors management) and Korea Entertainment Producers' Association (the "KEPA"; mainly singers management) to adopt the above-mentioned Exclusive Contract, respectively, and especially arbitration clause instead of litigation. After KCAB's tens of meetings and persuasion, they finally decided to accept KCAB's offer and they have submitted the Exclusive Contract drafted by KCAB and KELS to KFTC on April 17, 2009. The arbitration clause drafted by KCAB was already accepted by unfair contract examination division and unfair contract advisory committee and the final standard model contract was supposed to be publicly announced on June 30, 2009 after final examination of unfair contract standing committee, but the announcement has been delayed owing to severe controversies between the concerned parties, such as CEMA, KAU (Korea Artists' Union), KEPA and KSA (Korea Singers' Association) related to delicate issues like contract period and ownership of intellectual properties, etc. But it is expected the announcement will be made very soon by which the contract will include the originally drafted arbitration clause by KCAB. Therefore, it is very timely to examine the various legal issues which can be arisen out of disputes, and arbitration appropriateness with Exclusive Contract of Entertainment Management on this paper.

• Culinary science and hospitality research
• /
• v.14 no.3
• /
• pp.69-84
• /
• 2008

The franchise business in Korea, having a relatively short history compared to those of the advanced countries, disclosed many problems between franchisors and franchisees due to a rapid growth in number for the short period of time. Having recognized these problems, the Korean government, responding to social demands, established "The Fair Trade Practices Law for Franchise Business" to restrict unfair trade practices and to develop a healthier franchise business practice in general. In this study, we closely examined how the franchisees' understanding of the related laws would influence the franchisees' countermoves and satisfaction and the franchisor's reactions from the franchisees' standpoints. In conclusion, the franchisees show higher satisfaction in heteronomous changes achieved by the mutual agreement with the franchisors rather than in autonomous changes achieved by their active pursuits, as seen from the interrelation of the franchisors' reactions and the appropriateness of franchise agreements.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.119-133
• /
• 2011

The objective of this study is to establish the basic concepts for franchise agreements in consideration of both theoretical and practical conditions, to set the parameters for the discussion regarding the practical business matters pertaining to franchise agreements, and to analyze the criteria for determining the illegality of unfair trade practices based on research into actual practices in franchise transactions and on case studies of the implementation of laws by the Fair Trade Commission. The study aims to thereby contribute to the stabilization of laws in franchise transactions, benefiting all parties including franchise-related institutions, participants in franchise transactions, and related consumers. In conclusion, even in cases where regulatory exceptions are applied within the Fair Franchise Transactions Act when determining the illegality of franchised businesses, it is impossible to eliminate illegality unless all necessary and sufficient conditions have been included, and even if the procedure for evading illegality has been undertaken, illegality may not be eliminated unless the contents thereof are legitimate.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
• /
• v.42
• /
• pp.133-160
• /
• 2009

In International trade the buyer and seller are normally separated from on another not only by distance but also by differences in language and culture. It is rarely possible for the performance of obligations to be simultaneous and the performance of contracts therefore calls for trust in a situation in which the parties are unlikely to feel able to trust each other unless they have a longstanding and successful relationship. Thus the seller under an international contract of sale will not wish to surrender documents of title to goods to the buyer until he has at least an assurance of payment, and no buyer will wish to pay for goods until he has received them. A gap of distrust thus exists which is often bridged by the undertaking of an intermediary known and trusted by both parties who will undertake on his own liability to pay the seller the contract price in return for the documents of title and then pass the documents to the buyer in return for the reimbursement. This is a common explanation of the theory behind the documentary letter of credit in which the undertaking of a bank of international repute serves as a "guarantee" to each party that the other will perform his obligations. The independence principle, also referred to as the "autonomy principle", is at the core of letter of credit or bank guarantee law. This principle provides that the letter of credit or bank guarantee is independent of the underlying contractual commitment - that is, the transaction that the credit is intented to secure - between the applicant and the beneficiary ; the credit is also independent of the relationship between the bank and its customer, the applicant. The most important exception to the independence principle is the doctrine of fraud in the transaction. A strict interpretation of the rule that the guarantee is independent of the underlying transaction would lead to the conclusion that neither fraud nor manifest abuse of rights by the beneficiary would constitute an objection to payment. There is one major problem related to "Independent guarantees", namely abusive or unfair callings. The beneficiary may make an unfair calling under the guarantee. The countermeasure of beneficiary's unfair calling divided three cases. First, advance countermeasure namely by contract. In other words, when the formation of the contract, the parties must insert the Force Majeure Clause, Arbitration Clause to Contract, and clear statement to the condition for demand calling. Second, post countermeasure namely by court. Many countries, including the United States, authorize the courts to grant an order enjoining the issuer from paying or enjoining the beneficiary from receiving payment under the guaranty letter. Third, Export Insurance. For example, the Export Credit Guarantees Department is prepared, subject to certain conditions, to cover the risk of unfair calling. Of course, KEIC in Korea is cover the risk of the all things for guarantees. On international projects, contractor performance is usually guaranteed by either a standby letters of credit or Independent guarantee. These instruments will be care the parties.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.44 no.1
• /
• pp.177-191
• /
• 2019

Global trade protectionism has increased further and U.S. priorities and protectionism have strengthened since Trump took office in 2017. Trump administration is actively implementing tariff measures based on U.S. domestic trade laws rather than the WTO rules and regulations. In particular, the American government has recently been imposing high tariffs due to national security and imposing economic sanctions on other countries' imports. According to the U.S. Trade Expansion Act Section 232, the American government imposed additional tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to WTO member countries such as China, India, and EU etc. on march 15, 2018. Thus, this study aims to investigate whether the U.S. Trade Expansion Act Section 232 is consistent with GATT/WTO rules by comparing the legal basis of US / China / WTO regulations related to Section 232 of the U.S. Trade Expansion Act, and gives some suggestions for responding to the Section 232 measure. As the Section 232 measure exceeded the scope of GATT's Security Exceptions regulation and is very likely to be understood as a safeguard measure. If so, the American government is deemed to be in breach of WTO's regulations, such as the most-favored-nation treatment obligations and the duty reduction obligations. In addition, American government is deemed to be failed to meet the conditions of initiation of safeguard measure and violated the procedural requirements such as notification and consultation. In order to respond to these U.S. protection trade measures, all affected countries should actively use the WTO multilateral system to prevent unfair measures. Also, it is necessary to revise the standard jurisdiction of the dispute settlement body and to explore the balance of the WTO Exception clause so that it can be applied strictly. Finally, it would be necessary for Chinese exporters to take a counter-strategy under such trade pressure.

• Korea Trade Review
• /
• v.44 no.6
• /
• pp.231-246
• /
• 2019

Circumvention refers to the situation in which exporters try to circumvent import restrictions by setting up factories in third countries and assembling and producing parts locally. Circumvention dumping eliminates the impacts of existing anti-dumping measures, and major countries are introducing anti-circumvention dumping laws to address this problem. If the act of the exporting country is recognized as a circumvention dumping activity, anti-dumping duties are applied retroactively to the imported goods or components. Evasion is an act of importation that results in the reduction or non-application of cash deposits, securities, or anti-dumping or countervailing duties, in a manner that is substantive or false, substantive or omission. In this article, we reviewed the contents and examples of the anti-circumvention measures by the US Department of Commerce (DOC), the International Trade Commission (ITC), and the Anti-Evasion measures by the CBP. The CBP examples show how much inference can be made about which parts of the CBP's investigations, and in what ways. The enactment of the EAPA created an environment in which the role of the CBP was directly guaranteed, and it was possible to apply adverse inferences to those who did not respond to requests for information, resulting in stronger CBP's authority. Therefore, it is advisable for Korea to examine the introduction of domestic laws, such as the bypass anti-dumping system, in order to cope with unfair trade practices that undermine and neutralize the effects of anti-dumping measures.

• Journal of Distribution Research
• /
• v.12 no.3
• /
• pp.91-109
• /
• 2007

This paper intends to examine the antecedents to the ex-post supply price cut which is typical retailer's unfair trade practices from three perspectives such as market power, efficiency, and retailer's tendency. For the empirical research, we analyzed manufacturer's 79 key account managers who have traded with domestic discount stores. As a result, the harder a retailer tries to increase sales and margin simultaneously, the more the retailer tends to use the ex-post supply price cut against manufacturers. In addition, the most frequent pattern of ex-post supply price cut occurs after retailer's discount at discretion. Finally, we suggest this research's implications, limitations of this research with future research directions.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
• /
• v.24 no.10
• /
• pp.225-232
• /
• 2019

The trademark dilution of famous marks as a kind of unfair competition practice is defined and regulated in Article 2 (1) (c) of the Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act (hereinafter referred to as the Unfair Competition Prevention Act), which was newly established according to the amendment of the Act on February 3, 2001. Famous trademarks are universally protected in all around the world, which are likewise protected in the Republic of Korea by the Unfair Competition Prevention Actin line with such international trends. In order to establish the trademark dilution of famous marks, it is necessary to have the following characteristics: (1) high reputation of the original mark, (2) use of identical or similar markscompared to the original mark, (3) occurrence of blurring of discrimination or tarnishment of reputation; in particular, with respect to the degree of proof of 'blurring of discrimination or tarnishment of reputation', which is a constituent requirement of the trademark dilution of famous marks, it is reasonable to interpret the trademark dilution as concrete endangerment offense, neither harm-based offense nor abstract endangerment offense, and thus it should be considered that the crime is established if a specific realistic risk of blurring of discrimination or tarnishment of reputation occurs. Furthermore, in relation to the specific criteria of 'blurring of discrimination or tarnishment of reputation', it is necessary to comprehensively judge the degree of individual behavior in specific matters as a normative factor as well as the psychosocial viewpoint of the general public.

• The Korean Society of Law and Medicine
• /
• v.17 no.2
• /
• pp.177-219
• /
• 2016

A commercial advertisement is not only a way of competition but also a medium of communication. Thus, it is under the constitutional protection of the freedom of business (article 15 of the Constitution) as well as the freedom of press [article 21 (1) of the Constitution]. In terms of the freedom of business or competition, it should be noted that an unfair advertising (false or misleading advertisement) can be regulated as an unfair competition, while any restraint on advertising other than unfair one might be doubted as an unjustifiable restraint of trade. In terms of the freedom of press or communication, it is important that article 21 (2) of the Constitution forbids any kind of (prior) censorship, and the Constitutional Court applies this restriction even to commercial advertising. In this article, the applicability of these schemes to advertising of the so-called learned professions, especially physician, are to be examined, and some proposals for the reformation of the current regulatory regime are to be made. Main arguments of this article can be summarized as follows: First, the current regime which requires advance review of physician advertising as prescribed in article 56 (2) no. 9 of Medical Act should be reformed. It does not mean that the current interpretation of article 21 of the Constitution is agreeable. Though a commercial advertising is a way of communication and can be protected by article 21 (1) of the Constitution, it should not be under the prohibition of censorship prescribed by article 21 (2) of the Constitution. The Constitutional Court adopts the opposite view, however. It is doubtful that physician advertising needs some prior restraint, also. Of course, there exists severe informational asymmetry between physicians and patients and medical treatment might harm the life and health of patients irrevocably, so that medical treatment can be discerned from other services. It is civil and criminal liability for medical malpractice and duty to inform and not regulation on physician advertising, to address these differences or problems. Advance review should be abandoned and repelled, or substituted by more unproblematic way of regulation such as an accreditation of reviewed advertising or a self-regulation preformed by physician association independently from the Ministry of Health and Welfare or any other governmental agencies. Second, the substantive criteria for unfair physician advertising also should correspond that of unfair advertising in general. Some might argue that a learned profession, especially medical practice, is totally different from other businesses. It is performed under the professional ethics and should not persue commercial interest; medical practice in Korea is governed by the National Health Insurance system, the stability of which might be endangered when commercial competition in medical practice be allowed. Medical Act as well as the condition of medical practice market do not exclude competition between physicians. The fact is quite the opposite. Physicians are competing even though under the professional ethics and obligations and all the restrictions provided by the National Health Insurance system. In this situation, regulation on physician advertising might constitute unjustifiable restraint of competition, especially a kind of entry barrier for 'new physicians.'