Collective Redresses in Korea

Group litigation is divided into public and private group litigation. A representative example of public group litigation is parens patriae action in America. In February 2018, Korea Fair Trade Commission declared the necessity for introducing and institutionalizing parens patriae action in the Korean Fair Trade Law enforcement system. The Korean securities class action and the Korean consumer organization action have not been actively used due to the strict litigation requirements. parens patriae action, where the government sues the enterprise for damages on behalf of the consumers in injury, could be an appropriate alternative that replaces Korea Fair Trade Commission's administrative regulations with civil remedies, which have satisfied the needs of the private enforcement-oriented remedies so far. The latter is classified into class action and organization action. Korea is one of countries which adopted both class action and organization suit systems. Those are securities-related class action, organization suit available under the Framework Act on Consumers and Personal Information Protection Act. This Article purports to overview group litigation. In particular, Its focus is on securities-related class action, organization suits under the Framework Act on Consumers and Personal Information Protection Act. When it comes to organization suit, this Article enumerates ADR related to environmental disputes, consumer protection cases, disputes over personal information protection. Those are environmental organization dispute settlement, consumer dispute settlement under the Framework Act on Consumers, and Collective dispute mediation in connection with protection of personal information. In Conclusion, the Article implies that cutting-edge technology, such as digital technology, blockchain technology, and AI, can weaken the demand and necessity of class actions and organization suits. This Article points out that legal services, which use big data, AI, and blockchain, can make a client have much easier access to lawyers and, in some cases, discourage a class representative to bring a class suit.