[Bills in Focus] Promoting refiners' use of feedstock, tackling environmental claims in ads

Proposed bill: Partial Amendment to the Petroleum and Alternative Fuel Business Act

Proposed by Rep. Lee In-seon (People Power Party)

● Following the introduction of special deregulations that allow petroleum refiners to use pyrolytic oil -- a substance produced by recycling waste plastic or tires -- diluted with crude oil in petrochemical and refinery processes, this amendment establishes legal grounds for petroleum refiners to adopt environment-friendly raw materials as feedstock for refinery processes.

Proposed bill: Partial Amendment to the Environmental Technology and Industry Support Act

Proposed by Rep. Lee So-young (Democratic Party of Korea)

● There has been an issue where coal-fired power plants present themselves as “environment-friendly eco-plants” despite emitting greenhouse gases equivalent to the amount produced by 400,000 people. This amendment expands the prohibitions of greenwashing regulations that are currently only limited to the advertisement of products to include services and businesses. It also restricts businesses where fossil fuel power generation makes up 30 percent of their sales or generated power from being designated as green enterprises.

Pending bill: Partial Amendment to the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce

Proposed by Rep. Song Seog-jun (People Power Party)

● This amendment aims to obliterate dark patterns, which are deceptive marketing tactics that induce inattentive consumers into subscribing to automatic payment plans. It compels businesses to notify consumers when there are changes to service fees, requires them to indicate the total price of a product in the initial notice or advertisement of the product, and prohibits five activities related to online dark patterns.

Promulgated bill: Enforcement Decree of the Banking Act

Competent Authority: Financial Services Commission

● In line with the recent amendment to the Banking Act, this bill requires banks to obtain authorization from the Financial Services Commission intending to close a banking service that accounts for 10 percent of the total assets. Authorization is also required for the partial transfer or acquisition of incidental services and the partial transfer or acquisition of banking services, etc. Under this bill, banks seeking to transfer or acquire a banking service with assets or business profits exceeding a certain scale must also obtain authorization from the Financial Services Commission.

Administrative announcement: Partial Amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Special Measures for the Promotion of Venture Businesses

Competent Authority: Ministry of SMEs and Startups

● Following the amendment to the Act on Special Measures for the Promotion of Venture Businesses, this amendment exclusively allows the issuance of dual-class stocks for venture companies that have secured investments of 10 billion won ($7.5 million) or more after their establishment. It also mandates companies that fall into the scope of the large enterprise group and member companies of a business group subject to disclosure to convert their dual-class stock into common stock. Companies must also notify all their stockholders when making this conversion.

The Korea Herald republishes a weekly legislative report by local law firm DR & AJU LLC to provide the latest information on bills approved, proposed, pending and set to be promulgated. -- Ed.

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For any queries about the bills, contact cr@draju.com.