Busan City Actively Steps Up to Address Citizen Damages in 'Laundry Disputes'

Promotion of Specialized Review Organization Support Project for Textile and Laundry Disputes
Agreement to Establish Collaborative System among Textile and Laundry-related Organizations in Busan
Support for Fostering Private Organizations Resolving

On the 13th, a private expert review business agreement ceremony for the textile laundry dispute was held in Busan.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Yong-woo] What if clothes left at the dry cleaner get damaged?

Until now, even if there were disputes or conflicts related to laundry, there was no proper place to seek resolution other than the courts, but Busan City has stepped up to reduce such disputes.

Busan City announced on the 14th that it has secured supplementary budget and will foster a private organization that professionally reviews and mediates related disputes starting this September, for citizens who had difficulties resolving disputes due to the absence of a specialized organization for textile and laundry-related conflicts.

Clothing and other textile products are essential items used by all consumers, so they account for a high proportion of consumer disputes in purchasing, usage, and laundry. The reason consumer complaints are high in the textile and laundry sector is that it is difficult to identify the cause when defects occur in products.

With many high-priced clothes these days, consumers are seeking help from consumer counseling centers to determine fault. Among consumer counseling cases last year, textile products ranked fourth after mobile phone services, fitness centers, and smartphones.

However, when consumer disputes arise in the textile and laundry sector, there was no organization in Busan that professionally reviews and mediates these disputes.

According to an analysis of 6,257 disputes received by the Korea Consumer Agency over the past two years (January 2018 to March 2019), ▲requests for review regarding product defects accounted for 61.9% (3,871 cases), and ▲issues related to laundry negligence accounted for 38.1% (2,386 cases).

By responsibility, ▲manufacturers’ and sellers’ responsibility due to quality defects such as manufacturing defects was 44.9%, ▲laundry operators’ responsibility due to inappropriate laundry methods was 9.7%, ▲consumer responsibility due to careless handling was 17.7%, and ▲other unclear responsibilities accounted for 27.7%, with business responsibility totaling 54.6%. However, consumers had great difficulty proving and asserting the defects of the business operators.

To resolve this, on the 13th, Busan City signed a business agreement to enhance the dispute review capabilities of private organizations with FITI Testing & Research Institute Busan Branch, Busan Consumer Organizations Council, Daitek Research Institute Busan Textile Materials Promotion Center, Korea Laundry Industry Central Association Busan Branch, Korea Consumer Agency Busan Branch, Korea Apparel Technology Promotion Association Busan Branch, Korea Apparel Testing & Research Institute Regional Business Headquarters, and other private organizations.

The review organization will be selected through a public contest in August. The review committee will be composed of external experts from Busan-based textile and laundry-related institutions and research institutes participating in the business agreement.

The full-scale textile and laundry dispute reviews are scheduled to be held from the end of September on the second and fourth Wednesdays of every month.

Park Sung-hoon, Deputy Mayor of Busan City for Economic Affairs, said, “It is meaningful to be able to reduce citizen inconvenience by fostering and supporting a specialized textile and laundry review organization,” adding, “While it is important to promptly remedy consumer damages related to textiles and laundry, consumers can also prevent damage by carefully checking quality labels and handling precautions attached to products and developing the habit of verifying these before requesting laundry services.”