Case Analysis / Legal Updates

In this industrial accident death case, the court held the company strictly liable and imposed the highest fine among the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (a 2022 Korean statute imposing criminal liability on business operators for serious safety accidents, with no direct common-law equivalent) cases sentenced to date.

After it was revealed that a company that had received a damages judgment for trademark infringement infringed the trademark again, the court recognized punitive damages for the "period of willful trademark infringement."

The Supreme Court rendered a judgment finding guilty a deliveryman who, at the request of a voice phishing organization, used a repeater to manipulate overseas telephone numbers so that they appeared as domestic numbers.

Assault against a driver is punished more heavily than ordinary assault under the Act on Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. In this case, the court also found that the bus qualified as a vehicle "in operation" and applied this statute.

The defendant, indicted for child abuse, was brought to trial on the charge of having inflicted physical abuse on a child during instruction, but the District Court ultimately entered a judgment of acquittal.

The defendant in the copyright infringement lawsuit partially revised the plaintiff's play script and then staged a performance as his own creative work, and the court recognized the copyright infringement and issued an order for damages and an injunction against the performance.

The defendant, who was referred to criminal trial for obscenity via telecommunication media (a Korean offense under the Sexual Violence Punishment Act of conveying sexually humiliating material through telecommunication media, with no direct common-law equivalent) in an online game, was indicted on a charge of obscenity via telecommunication media under the Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes and, despite his appeal, was sentenced to a fine of 2 million won.

On a charge of interference with business arising from posting false statements online that interfered with the operation of an academy, the court dismissed the plaintiff's claim for pecuniary damages against the former instructor.

The court acquitted a pharmacy manager who, on charges of violating the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, had employed a fraudster posing as a pharmacist by forging a pharmacist's license.

In an insurance benefit dispute lawsuit, A, who caused an accident by violating a traffic signal, received a disposition from the National Health Insurance Service reclaiming the insurance benefits, but the court revoked the disposition on the ground that gross negligence was not found.

In a matter concerning the comprehensive real estate holding tax, the taxpayer, who had temporarily become an owner of two houses through inheritance and was assessed the tax accordingly, filed a lawsuit seeking revocation of the disposition, but the court ruled that the disposition was lawful.

An oriental medicine doctor whose medical license had been suspended filed an administrative lawsuit, arguing that the suspension of the license imposed for reusing single-use needles was improper, but the Administrative Court ruled that the disposition was justified.