7 Central Ministries and 17 Metropolitan Local Governments Attend
ID Verification Regulation Provisions to Be Revised Within the First Half of the Year
A collaborative system among related agencies will be fully launched to allow small business owners to operate without worrying about youth buying alcohol and cigarettes by lying about their age.
President Yoon Suk-yeol is listening to the remarks of the discussants at the "Public Discussion on Livelihoods with the People - Tenth Session, Small and Medium Enterprises and Small Business Owners Running Together, A Livable Economy" held on the 8th at Layer57 in Seongdong-gu, Seoul. [Photo by Yonhap News]
The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 15th that it held the ‘Good-faith Small Business Owners Protection Council’ together with seven central government ministries including the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Health and Welfare, as well as 17 metropolitan local governments.
The council was organized to discuss more broadly the exemption of administrative sanctions for good-faith small business owners mentioned at the public livelihood forum held on the 8th. The government had decided to exempt administrative sanctions if a business owner sold alcohol or cigarettes to youths who lied about their age, provided the owner checked their ID or was subjected to assault or threats.
Right after the public livelihood forum, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety sent an official letter to local governments requesting that “when detecting acts of providing alcohol to youths, objective facts regarding the business owner’s ID verification should be thoroughly investigated before carefully deciding on administrative sanctions and prosecution.” The day before, the Ministry also held an active administration committee meeting and deliberated and resolved to implement the exemption regulation before the legal amendment.
Related ministries will also strive to prevent small business owners from unfair administrative sanctions related to youth ID verification in other fields such as tobacco, lodging, and content provision beyond alcohol. The 17 metropolitan local governments will ensure that the administrative sanction exemption for protecting good-faith small business owners can be immediately applied on the ground, and will establish a cooperative system with local Small and Medium Venture Business Offices to disseminate active administration cases to basic local governments.
At the same time, legal revisions to fundamentally resolve regulations will be swiftly promoted. The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, which oversees the Youth Protection Act, along with the Ministry of Economy and Finance and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, plan to revise regulatory provisions related to youth ID verification included in their respective laws within the first half of the year. The Ministry of Government Legislation will support the entire legal review process to ensure smooth progress of the amendments.
In the lodging sector under the Public Health Control Act, and in the content sector under the Game Industry Promotion Act and the Performance Act, legal amendments are necessary to establish administrative sanction exemption provisions. Accordingly, the Ministry of Government Legislation, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare plan to cooperate with the National Assembly to expedite the legal amendments.
Won Young-jun, Director of the Small Business Policy Office at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups, emphasized, “Following the public livelihood forum, government ministries are breaking down their silos and acting as one team to protect good-faith small business owners. We will continue to collaborate with related agencies and do our best to ensure small business owners can operate with peace of mind.”
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