Reason for proposal and main contents

The current Act prescribes that, if a victim proves that any damages have been caused in the course of the proper and correct use of a product, it shall be assumed that the product was defective at the time of its supply and that the damage was caused by such defect. The Act was revised in 2017 to mitigate the victim’s burden of proof.

Nevertheless, certain types of accidents, such as sudden automobile acceleration accidents, occurred even after the revision of the Act, and there have been no cases in which the manufacturer has accepted liability for indemnification for damages in damage claim lawsuits brought for such reasons. In relation to this matter, there is an opinion that, in the case of such products as cars manufactured or processed with high technologies, if it is difficult for victims to prove whether the product functioned properly or not, the burden of proof should be changed to ensure the practical protection of victims.

Therefore, it stipulates that the manufacturers of high-technology products, as designated by Presidential Decree, should prove in a damage claim lawsuit that there has been no defect at the time the victim suffered harm. It is intended to mitigate burden of proof on victims and to protect victims practically through this revision (Newly established Article 4-2 of the draft).

The proposed revision introduces a strengthened order for the submission of materials, surpassing the current document submission order under the Civil Procedure Act. In cases of non-compliance, the facts intended to be proven by the materials may be accepted as true. Additionally, the court may make a chance-loss rejection if the data submission order is not obeyed either intentionally or erroneously or if false data are submitted. This aims to mitigate the structural omnipresence phenomenon of evidence in the process of lawsuits (Newly established Article 7-2 and Article 7-3 of the draft).

Furthermore, confidentiality order system is introduced to prevent leaks of business secrets through data submission. It also aims to reduce imbalances of information between the parties and to guarantee balanced evidence collection right (Newly established Articles 7-4 to 7-6 of the draft).