The Standing of the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act under the Civil Affairs
The Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act is a right allowing an easy withdrawal from a contract by means of the consumer's unilateral expression of a...
The Standing of the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act under the Civil Affairs
The Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act is a right allowing an easy withdrawal from a contract by means of the consumer's unilateral expression of a decision. In Korea, this right is specified in the laws for including Transactions in Installation, Door-to-Door Sales, and Electronic Commerce Transactions.
In Korea this right is referred to as Cooling-off which defines one type of withdrawals stipulated in the Civil Law. Under the conditions specified in this law, the express of withdrawal of subscription can be repealed during a particular period of time; the initial point of the expiration of the right is the moment the obligations of the business operator for provision of information and performance are completed, so it is more appealing that this right is about allowing the determination on whether to continue the contract rather than it is about allowing the determination on the validity of the contract. Therefore, the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act, from the point of the acceptance by the business operator, has the nature to nullify the binding power of the declaration of intention, a right to withdrawal; after an approval, to nullify the binding power of the consumer contract, a right to cancellation.
Meanwhile, it became hard to know which laws should apply in a case involving a problem with the consumer contract ever since the Consumer Protection Act was enforced. For this reason, there have been serious discussions for integration of Special Law on Consumer Protections. In the discussion, whether to incorporate the withdrawal right composes one part of the integration methods. However, the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act is a critical jurisdictional regulations that has a direct impact on the consumer's interest in his or her contract, where the applicable law has no specifications about the right of the consumer to cancellation.
The terms in the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act, which is about the declaration of intention by the consumer, can address not only the flaws involved in the process of entering a contract but also the recognition of the contract contents simply by means of repealing the declaration of intention without having to satisfy other requirements specified in the Civil Law. In addition, the initial point the expiration of the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act assumes the implementation of the provision of information as well as the payments made by the business operator, which provide the effect to indirectly integrate various types of the legal interests under the Consumer Protection Act only with employment of the withdrawal right.
Like above, the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act plays a pivotal role in establishing and maintaining a consumer contract and may be an issue for integrated legislation of jurisdictional aspects of the Special Law on Consumer Protection. However, this right has its limitations in establishing it into the special civil law for consumers, in that in its nature it is a detailed and direct right basically applied to an exceptional case; so it might be reasonable to implement a unified establishment by incorporating it into the civil law by virtue of a legislative resolution. The incorporation of the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act into the civil law may have its meaning as a groundwork for integrating the Special Law on Consumer Protection into the civil law.
Attention should be paid to the following details in incorporating the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act into the civil law:
If the concept of consumers should be defined for the incorporation of terms related with the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act, the definition may well be stated in the general rules of a given contract; it can be more methodic to specifically term whether the maintain the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act in each type of contracts. In a strict meaning, the effect of the right should be divided into functions to exclude the binding power of the subscription and to rule out the binding power of the contract to clarify its legal properties. Further, it will be reasonable to establish the cost for requesting of a recondition in administrating the Right to Withdrawal of Consumer Protection Act in a unified manner by considering whether it is a simple change of the purchase intention by the consumer.