“Please extend the two-year warranty period for mobile phone products.” The Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on the 10th that it has delivered 24 unreasonable regulations that people feel in their daily lives to the government in the form of a “proposal for rationalization of regulations in the life of a new growth series (8)”.
Representatively, unlike automobiles and household appliances, insurance industry regulations that prevent mobile carriers from providing mobile phones’ product warranty extension services were included.
Under the current law, in the case of smartphone terminals, if the manufacturer’s quality guarantee period (usually two years) passes, the telecommunications company cannot extend the warranty for a fee. Because mobile phone product warranty extensions are considered insurance products, carriers that do not qualify as insurance sellers cannot provide services. On the other hand, the U.S. and Japan do not see this as insurance, so they can extend the warranty for about two years even after the end of the free guarantee, reducing the burden of repair costs by receiving product warranty services for a total of four years.
It also included easing restrictions on early morning delivery at large supermarkets, which are considered regular living regulations. The current Distribution Industry Development Act imposes a mandatory closure twice a month for large supermarkets and a limit on business hours from midnight to 10 a.m. Also, online orders and delivery are prohibited at this time.
With same-day and early morning delivery becoming more common recently, it has been pointed out that online business hours restrictions have been applied only to large discount stores for more than 10 years, which goes against fair competition.
[Reporter Choo Donghoon]
