「유통산업발전법」상 복합쇼핑몰 규제와 합헌성 전망

The current 「Distribution Industry Development Act」 allows the heads of local autonomous governments to restrict business hours or to designate mandatory holidays against the LSDs (Large Scale Markets) and SSMs (Super Supermarkets) when it is necessary for the ‘establishment of healthy distribution order’, ‘health rights of workers’ and ‘promoting mutual growth of small and medium-sized businesses.’ Although economic- and social analysis have been conducted with various angles regarding the economic impacts of this regulation, both the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Korea held this regulation legitimate and constitutional, in 2015 and 2018, distinctively. Nevertheless, with the emergence of large-scale stores, collectively referred to as ‘multi-complex shopping malls’, serious conflicts with small and medium-sized merchants have continued to increase. As a result, a legislative bill to regulate the ‘multi-complex shopping malls’ under the very similar regulatory framework to that of LSDs has been introduced. This study aims to analyze the basic framework of the regulation over the ‘multi-complex shopping malls’ prescribed by the National Assembly’s revised bill of the 「Distribution Industry Development Act」. And it proposes the rationality and constitutionality of the regulation. To this end, the author summarizes the operational status of the current LSDs regulations, presenting the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, respectively. In addition, based on empirical date and actual status of the ‘multi-complex shopping malls,’it highlights the limitations and problems of draft bill in six categories: such as ambiguity of the definition provision, the under-estimated surface area standard, the lack of protection for small business owners in ‘multi-complex shopping malls,’ and the absence of detailed standards for exceptional provisions, etc.