"Alcohol Sold Without ID Verification... Two-Month Business Suspension Deemed Harsh"

Decision of the Administrative Appeals by the Korea Commission for Human Rights

A decision to suspend business operations for two months on the grounds of selling alcoholic beverages to minors without checking their ID was deemed excessive.

Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission. / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

On the 7th, the Central Administrative Appeals Commission of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission announced that, considering various policy intentions to alleviate the burden on small business owners, the two-month business suspension was judged to be excessively harsh and was canceled. Mr. A saw a minor with tattoos and yellow hair and assumed they were an adult, providing alcohol without verifying their ID. As a result, he received a two-month business suspension from the administrative authority last November.

The Central Administrative Appeals Commission judged that, given the economic difficulties caused by excessive debt, it is difficult to cover monthly rent, maintenance fees, and labor costs, and that resuming business would also be very challenging, making the two-month suspension excessively harsh. They also took into account that the administrative penalty standards had been relaxed from a two-month suspension to seven days, and that since April, the 'Food Sanitation Act Enforcement Rules' were amended to allow substitution of suspension penalties with fines.

Park Jong-min, Chairman of the Central Administrative Appeals Commission, stated, “We will continue to actively examine the unfairness of administrative penalties to ensure that excessive sanctions by administrative authorities do not burden the public,” and added, “Furthermore, we will strive to stabilize the livelihood economy through protecting the rights and interests of small business owners.”