Ruling party concerns over introducing class action lawsuit

The ruling Saenuri Party hosted a general meeting for the members of the National Assembly on policies regarding the June extraordinary parliamentary session on Monday. Many pointed out the problems as well as the needs of bills on economic democratization. The issue over economic democratization, which seemed to subdue for a while, flared up again.

Rep. Kim Yong-tae, a member of the parliamentary National Policy Committee in charge of bills on economic democracy, said on class action lawsuits, “If they are indiscriminately introduced, some innocent companies can be victimized. If all authority is given to the Fair Trade Commission, the situation would become even worse than now.” He added, “If we leave everything up to the Fair Trade Commission, it can be invincible. Therefore, we should closely review bills during the legislation process.” Rep. Kim Hyeon-sook said, “We need to closely look at whether it is effective to introduce the class action lawsuit.”

Rep. Seong Wan-jong said, “We need to regulate conglomerates’ attempt to give all projects to their subsidiaries but introducing a class action lawsuit system could be like breaking a butterfly on a wheel.” He asked his party to take the initiative on punitive damages, saying, “It is practically impossible to introduce punitive damages because they could be unconstitutional. I don’t understand why people dispute over the issue.”

Rep. Lee Jong-hoon, a member of the party’s gathering for economic democratization, said, “A class action lawsuit should be adopted to help suppliers and service providers stand up against conglomerates regardless of the decision of the Fair Trade Commission.”

The ruling party leadership decided to pass key bills that have consensus during the session in June but collect more opinions on sensitive bills including the overhaul of the governance structure of conglomerates. Choi Kyung-hwan, the ruling party’s floor leader, said at the meeting of senior members after the general meeting on Monday, “The general consensus is that the National Assembly should pass bills that strengthen regulations on illegal activities and abuse of economic power in June, and address the governance structure issue with time to further supplement the bill because it are not ready to be made into law now.”

Citizens United for Better Society, a right-wing civic group, held a press conference in front of the National Assembly on Monday, saying, “The National Assembly must stop legislating bad populist economic laws.” Some 10 members including Yoo Ho-yeol, the civic group’s co-head and Korea University professor, said in the press conference, “At a time when the Korean economy is slowly dying like a frog in a boiling pot, politicians are pushing out bills that regulate business activities in the name of economic democratization.”