"We Are Minors, So We'll Leave Without Reporting"... Support for Self-Employed Victims Deceived and Harmed Begins

Ministry of Government Legislation Expands Exemption Rules for Administrative Sanctions

Recently, there have been consecutive cases where restaurants were deceived by students pretending to be adults, resulting in business suspensions or unpaid food bills. Related bills have been proposed to help small business owners who have suffered unfair damages.

On the 31st, the Ministry of Government Legislation announced that six legislative amendment bills, including the "Youth Protection Act," which contain provisions to ease the burden on business operators regarding age verification of buyers, were submitted to the National Assembly on the 26th. Earlier, on the 22nd, Woo Eui-dong, the Policy Committee Chair of the People Power Party, stated, "We will establish institutional measures to protect self-employed business owners by expanding the administrative sanction exemption provisions, currently specified only in some laws, to cover all businesses requiring age verification."

The photo is not related to the specific content of the article. [Photo by Yonhap News]

The amendment to the "Youth Protection Act" codifies the obligation for persons requested to verify age to cooperate. Four other laws, including the "Performance Act" and the "Act on the Promotion of the Music Industry," specify grounds for restricting entry to business premises or purchasing goods if buyers fail to cooperate with identity verification or refuse to present identification. In particular, four laws, including the "Public Hygiene Management Act," establish provisions that exempt business operators from sanctions such as business suspension if a youth uses a forged or stolen ID or if the youth’s age cannot be confirmed due to assault, threats, or other coercion. This expands the exemption grounds for sanctions, which had previously existed only in some laws, to all businesses requiring age verification.

Stories of being deceived by minors into selling alcohol and subsequently facing business suspensions or lawsuits have been steadily appearing online.

During last Christmas holiday, a case was reported where a business owner sold 140,000 KRW worth of alcohol and food to minors pretending to be adults and was sued by their parents. The owner said, "Two female customers sat down; their dyed long hair reached their chests, and with makeup and handbags, they looked over twenty years old." He added, "After the customers left, their parents called and hurled all kinds of insults and even filed a lawsuit."

He continued, "The business suspension and fines threaten the livelihoods of me, my staff, and part-time workers," expressing frustration, "Is there no punishment for the youth buyers of harmful alcohol and cigarettes, while only the sellers are penalized?"

There are also frequent cases where minors, after drinking, claim to be underage and leave without paying the bill. This month, in Incheon, a customer consumed 160,000 KRW worth of food and alcohol and fled, leaving only a note on the bill saying, "If you report this, the business will be suspended, so I’m just leaving."

Article 44 of the Food Sanitation Act prohibits providing alcoholic beverages to youths. Violations result in administrative sanctions: a 60-day business suspension for the first offense, 180 days for the second, and license cancellation for the third. However, as an exemption clause, it stipulates that "if a food service business operator is not prosecuted or receives a suspended sentence because they were unaware of the youth’s age due to forged or stolen ID, administrative sanctions are waived." From 2020 to 2022, there were 194 cases of exemption, accounting for only about 2.8% of all detected violations.

Lee Wan-gyu, Director of the Ministry of Government Legislation, said, "This legislative amendment is directly related to people’s livelihoods," and added, "The Ministry of Government Legislation will do its best to support the prompt processing of the bill."