skip to main contents skip to main menu
KOTRA Trade-Investment Promotion Agency buy korea For Seller Inverst KOREA
Korean

FOREIGN INVESTMENT OMBUDSMAN

FOREIGN INVESTMENT OMBUDSMAN

Korean

Resolved Cases

  • Home
  • Grievance Consultation
  • Resolved Cases
  • Request to Revise Electrical Appliances Safety Standards and Operation Methods
    • 담당부서 : 외투기업고충처리실
    • 조회수 : 1,992
  • Organization : Korean Agency for Technology and Standards
  • Regulation : Enforcement Rule of Electrical Appliances Safety Control Act, Electrical Appliances Safety Standards
Grievance
Grievance
•Backgrounds: The Ombudsman Office received management grievances from major foreign-invested copy machine manufacturers in Korea about rising importation of illegal second-hand copy machines, an issue that has not been resolved for a long time.

•Main Issue: In the 'Proposal to revise parts of Enforcement Rule of Electrical Appliances Safety Control Act (Article 14)', which was pre-announced on July 1, 2011, there were provisions to exempt second-hand copy machines from some or all of the tests if the same model had been imported repeatedly. In such cases, however, consumer safety and product quality cannot be guaranteed.

In particular, paragraph 1 of Article 14 of the Enforcement Rule, which exempted repeatedly imported products from all of the tests, undermined the effectiveness of the existing "electrical appliances safety inspection system" and "pre-inspection system". Furthermore, this resulted in reverse discrimination where domestically produced electrical appliances and newly imported products faced tougher regulations than second-hand ones.

•Request: Second-hand copy machines are vulnerable to accidents because they can catch on fire due to their old parts. However, there were almost no regulations against them. Therefore, systemic improvement was urgent to mandate these imported second-hand machines receive safety inspection before being distributed.

Resoultion and Results
Resolution and Results
•Resolution: Ombudsman recommended to delete the phrase, "to exempt repeatedly imported products from all of the tests" in the paragraph 1, Article 14 of the Enforcement Rule of Electrical Appliances Safety Control Act, and change it into "to exempt repeatedly imported products from some of the tests". (The revised version was announced on Sep. 30, 2011)

•Resolution Process: The recommendation above was reflected in Article 6-2 of the Enforcement Rule of Electrical Appliances Safety Control Act. The Ombudsman requested revision of the relevant notification so that when the same model of second-hand copy machines, which had received safety inspection at the time of the first importation, was to be imported again, they should undergo some important tests as prescribed by the President of the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards.

‣(Dec. 27, 2012) A Home Doctor visited Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) and discussed the revision of the relevant notification.

‣(Feb. 8, 2012) A 'Proposal to Revise Electrical Appliances Safety Standards and Operation Methods' was pre-announced.

Outcome:
•Results: The above recommendations were reflected in the notification No. 2012-120 of KATS, 「Electrical Appliances Safety Standards and Operation Methods under the paragraph 3, Article 3, and paragraph 3, Article 11 of the Electrical Appliances Safety Control Act」, which was notified on March 14, 2012.

Kotra - Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency
Foreign Investor Aftercare Office, 6th floor, Invest Korea Plaza, 13, Heolleungno, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 06792, Republic of Korea TEL : 1600-7119
Copyight(c) All Rights Reserved. OFFICE OF FOREIGN INVESTMENT OMBUDSMAN [OFIO], KOTRA