Measures are implemented to prevent damage to consumers caused by unexpectedly charged payments after experiencing digital subscription economy services including online video services for free.
The Financial Services Commission announced on the 3rd that it announced a legislative notice of amendments to the Enforcement Decree of the Specialized Credit Finance Business Act containing the subscription economy financial consumer protection bill.
According to the Financial Services Commission, some subscription economy companies fail to protect financial consumers, such as not providing information on the fact and schedule that consumers are automatically billed before the end of the free/discount event period, or in a way that is difficult to understand (simple email notification, etc.). Has occurred.
In addition, certain apps require a complicated procedure of’Settings → My Information → ㅇㅇPurchase information → User ticket management → Password input → Payment method change/management → Payment management → Application for cancellation of usage rights’ when regular payment is canceled.
It turns out that there are many cases where a one-month fee is charged and refunds are not allowed if there is even one use history, and it turns out that the refund method is limited to points that can only be used within the service.
Accordingly, on the 23rd of last month, the Financial Services Commission announced plans to promote the revision of the enforcement decree and standard terms and conditions of the previous law to protect financial consumers of the subscription economy.
The Financial Services Commission decided to resolve the problem first, saying that there has been no basis for a settlement agency to present fair terms and conditions for periodic payments to subordinate businesses.
Through the revision of the enforcement ordinance of the previous law, it was decided to lay the groundwork for payment agencies to require subordinate businesses to present fair transaction conditions to credit card, debit card, and prepaid card members in relation to paid conversion, cancellation, and refund during regular payment.
Regular payment providers have established fair refund standards, such as clearly notifying the paid conversion schedule, making it possible to easily apply for cancellations outside of business hours, and not unreasonably restricting the option of refund methods.
In addition, these terms and conditions are reflected in the terms and conditions or contracts, and if a dispute arises due to non-compliance with the terms of the transaction, the settlement agency can request correction and suspend or cancel the settlement agency contract.
An official from the Financial Services Commission said, “Consumers are expected to be able to know the paid conversion schedule, simplify the termination, and pay only the amount used”.
Along with this, the Financial Services Commission announced the legislative decree of the amendment to the previous law, and laid the groundwork to reasonably ease the requirements for major shareholders in the case of concurrent permission for credit card business such as banks.
Currently, when a bank, etc. wants to obtain a credit card business license or a full-time license, the largest shareholder’s equity capital requirement (more than 4 times the investment) is applied.
The revision of the enforcement decree made it possible to reasonably ease and apply the requirements for large shareholders when permitting the credit card business of banks, etc., and to delegate specific standards to the guidelines for licensing (notified by the Financial Services Commission).
There is also a plan to rationalize the reporting deadline when a female warrior changes its majority shareholder.
In the event of changes such as the largest shareholder of B-Card female warriors, the reporting deadline for the FSC was adjusted to ease from’within 7 days’ to’within 2 weeks’ in the same manner as the Governance Act.
It also stipulated that the examination of registration requirements of value-added telecommunication companies and confirmation of registration cancellation requirements can be entrusted to the Financial Supervisory Service.
An official from the Financial Services Commission said, “The revised bill of the Enforcement Decree of the Specialized Credit Finance Business Act is scheduled to be legislated by February 15, and the revision will be pushed forward after reviewing the Kyudo Committee and the Ministry of Legislation.”
Lee Chung-woo, Money Today Broadcasting MTN reporter
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