공정거래 관련 분쟁의 조정 등에 관한 법률 제정안에 관한 소고

On December 20, 2023, the enactment of the “Act on Mediation of Disputes Related to Fair Trade (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Fair Trade Dispute Mediation Act’)” was announced in order to establish a relief system for damages that small and medium-sized business owners can experience in relation to fair trade. This enactment is intended to integrate dispute resolution-related regulations scattered across a total of six laws, including the Fair Trade Act, Franchise Business Act, Subcontracting Act, Large-Scale Distribution Business Act, Terms and Conditions Act, and Agency Transactions Act and to comprehensively overhaul and improve the current dispute resolution system. This enactment can be evaluated as faithful to the purpose of consolidating the provisions on dispute mediation that were scattered across six laws into one law. However, rather than simply consolidating laws into one, the enactment of the Fair Trade Dispute Mediation Act should be an opportunity to improve the effectiveness of the dispute resolution system and provide relief for business owners' actual damages. Based on this perspective, this study examined the main contents of the enactment of the Fair Trade Dispute Mediation Act, reviewed the problems, and proposed improvement measures.