기초지방자치단체의 소비자행정실태와 과제

The national policies to promote consumer administration at metropolitan and provincial governments in Korea have accomplished certain outcomes since mid-1990s. The concern has been moved toward the lower level of local autonomous governments, that is, Si-Kun-Ku. This study focused on the legal framework, current situation and future development direction of consumer administration at Si-Kun-Ku local autonomous governments. The Framework Act on Consumers does not include the clauses directly related with obligations or authorities of Si-Kun-Ku. In accordance with some related general provisions, however, these governments are able to push ahead with consumer policies, in particular, supportive administrative affairs such as information provision, consumer education and consumer complaint redress. The Si-Kun-Ku governments, according to related consumer protection acts, have authorities to enforce regulations such as notification of Door-to-Door businesses and recall of defective foods, too. The case study on consumer administration of Si-Kun-Ku governments in the region of Daegu metropolitan city and Gyungbuk province conducted in autumn of 2008, revealed that civil servants in charge of consumer administration understood their works very narrowly into consumer counselling or consumer education. According to the field survey, three kinds of consumer counselling channels are being applied, that is, direct handling by administrative office, transferring cases to consumer organizations and referring complaints to Consumer Centers in metropolitan cities or provinces. As the importance of Consumer Centers has been grown, the national government need to consider their incremental spread up to certain level of cities. The national governments should also support local governments financially enforcing the mandated regulations from central government.