공정거래법 위반행위에 대한 징벌적 손해배상제도 도입방안

The Korean National Assembly revised the Fair Subcontract Transactions Act to introduce treble damages for the accusation of the forced transfer of technology in 2011. Now, the Korean Fair Trade Commission is considering to propose the bill to stipulate treble damages on the violation of the Korean Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act(hereinafter, ‘MRFTA’). Because the Korean legal system belongs to the civil law, many Korean scholars and lawyers have negative opinions on the punitive damages. But, the public enforcement of the MRFTA by the Korean FTC has not been so effective to deter the violation. Then some insists on the introduction of treble damages to reinforce the inefficient public enforcement. To legislate the treble damages successfully, several considerations such as the corelation to the compensatory damages, the statutory requirements of the new treble damages, the possibility of unconstitutionality, etc. should be reviewed. Even if there may be some unbalance in the legal system, the introduction of treble damages will put positive impact on the optimal control to the violation of the MRFTA.