Alleviation of Regulations Against Hypermarkets

written by 20223 Ha Ye Won

The Fair Trade Commission has been pushing ahead with the alleviation of regulation against hypermarkets.

The Distribution Industry Development Act was enacted in 2010. Since then, hypermarkets must be closed for two days, usually Sundays, every month. Several super centers that have an area of 3,000 square meters can’t be located within a 1km radius of the traditional market.

Since 2012, the hypermarket’s business hours have been limited, which are from 10 a.m. to midnight. The alleviation includes excluding online delivery from the range of mandatory holidays and more.

 

Fair Trade Commission claims that hypermarkets have encountered reverse discrimination, unlike online shopping malls, as more and more people are using online delivery services. There have been few competitions in good faith in the online distribution market, which violates consumers’ right of choice in the market.

Moreover, they believe that local businesses wouldn’t be used regardless of hypermarkets’ limitations due to online shopping malls.

A person concerned about hypermarkets expects that profits the hypermarket can get on the weekends are three times more than that on the weekdays, so if hypermarkets are closed on Sunday, their profits will decline.

Another person says that hypermarkets used to discard commodities that have short expiration dates, such as dairy products, due to the mandatory day off on Sunday. Thus they could solve the problem.

 

On the other hand, others, such as small traders, object to it. They argue that the alleviation is what eliminates the final protection on local businesses and what attains conglomerates’ long-cherished desire. Furthermore, some of them have complaints against the government.

The new Korean government made a National Offer homepage. Citizens could vote on ten offers among all they have suggested in advance. The vote was done for ten days, from July 21st to 31st. However, the government didn’t keep its promise to reflect the top three offers in state affairs because it judged that there were votes casted by improper measures such as multiple voting. Nevertheless, it pronounced that it would push ahead with the mitigation of regulation against hypermarkets by integrating super centers’ opinions with small traders’.

The opponents assert that “it is inappropriate to vote on policies just by seeing titles of them” because enacting a law must be considered seriously.

Also, they point out that there’s only a like button and not a dislike button, which can’t reflect citizens’ perspectives completely. Also, people who work for hypermarkets insist that the alleviation of mandatory holidays is concerned with extra labor, which is only good for employers.

 

The Fair Trade Commission sorts out laws that have elements that might restrict competition in markets. The commission discusses solutions to them with the ministry and office concerned every year. This year, it selected 44 regulations as the elements which seem to restrict competition between companies.

Members of the National Assembly have been proposing constitutional amendments regardless of their parties. The largest number of the public clicked the like button of the alleviation of regulation against hypermarkets on the National Offer homepage. Therefore, it is likely that the government would alleviate the regulation for companies, which can promote privately led economic growth, and the additional supporting plan seems to be required for small traders.