Case Analysis / Legal Updates

This is the first Supreme Court precedent that, in connection with false tax invoices, attributed a tax invoice issued in a subsidiary's name to the parent company. (Supreme Court, Decision of May 29, 2025, 2023 Du 41314)

In a case concerning a claim for a stipulated sum, focusing on whether the dispatch was substantive in nature, a judgment was rendered holding that a 'covenant to repay dispatch costs upon resignation without mandatory service after an overseas dispatch' was void. (Supreme Court, Decision of April 15, 2025, 2022 Da 208755)

Regarding the criteria for an ordinary wage, the Supreme Court held that a bonus subject to an attendance rate condition and a condition of continued employment also constitutes an ordinary wage. (Supreme Court, Decision of February 20, 2025, 2021 Da 216957)

The court found the head of a company guilty for countering a labor union's strike with an unjustified lockout. This is a judgment imposing a suspended sentence (a suspended sentence under Korean law, broadly comparable to a suspended sentence or probation in common-law systems, under which the conviction loses its effect once the suspension period passes without incident) for an unfair labor practice that interfered with labor union activities.

A judgment has been issued in the litigation between the Media Workers' Union and the National Labor Relations Commission concerning an unfair labor practice. The court ruled against the Media Workers' Union in its lawsuit seeking revocation of the reexamination decision on the remedy for the unfair labor practice.

This is the first case under 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) in which only the subcontractor was found guilty. The court issued a judgment that denied the criminal liability of the primary contractor's representative and recognized only the liability of the site manager belonging to the subcontractor.

This is a case in which the court recognized the trust company's liability for damages for its failure to perform responsible completion under a trust agreement. The judgment showed that a responsible completion undertaking may be recognized as an enforceable monetary liability for compensation.

Under the Framework Act on the Construction Industry, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport issued a disposition against the plaintiff restricting its participation in subcontracting for public construction works. The plaintiff filed a lawsuit challenging the disposition, and the court found the disposition unlawful.

Companies H and G came under scrutiny for violations of environmental law. An executive of Company H received a sentence of imprisonment in the first instance. The courts are imposing increasingly severe punishment on companies that violate environmental law.

Company Y and its respective officers and employees, who were indicted on charges of violating the Clean Air Conservation Act and the Water Environment Conservation Act, were sentenced to fines. Through this case, we will examine the circumstances of Company Y's violations of environmental law.

Company M, which had been assessed a penalty surcharge of KRW 64.2 billion on suspicion of unlawfully manipulating automobile emissions, filed a revocation lawsuit against the penalty surcharge but lost the case. The High Court determined that the penalty surcharge was lawful.

This is the case of Company M, whose objection to an administrative disposition was dismissed by the Supreme Court. Because it provided personal information without consent, the penalty surcharge of 6.7 billion won and the corrective order were held to be a lawful administrative disposition.