Key Provisions of Proposed Class Action Bills in Korea

As Korea’s government and the ruling party consider measures to root out the crime of breach of trust while compensating victims through increased civil liability, discussions of expanding the class action system are intensifying following a series of high profile personal information leaks. Five competing bills that would introduce an expanded class action system have already been proposed and are pending in the 22nd National Assembly. While each bill differs in detail, they share a common structure wherein a court would certify a class action for multiple consumers who suffer harm due to the goods, services, facilities, or services provided by a business, and the judgment's binding force and performance obligation may extend to victims who did not participate in the lawsuit.

The following summarizes the key provisions of the six class action bills proposed by the 22nd National Assembly as of January 2026.

Scope of Class Action Lawsuits

The bills contain virtually no restrictions on the scope of class action filings. While some bills do limit damages claims based on certain laws, no such limitations are placed on the most common laws impacting the relationship between businesses and consumers, such as the Consumer Protection Act, the Product Liability Act, and the Personal Information Protection Act.

Burden of Proof and Discovery

The bills aim to lower the burden of proof on consumer plaintiffs to make it easier to establish the underlying facts of the relevant claim and damages amount, and to impose stronger obligations on business defendants to produce relevant documents (compared to their current obligations under the Civil Procedure Act). More specifically, in cases of non-compliance with a document submission order, the bills would allow the court to recognize as true the counterparty's assertions related to such document. Further, the bills would permit discovery even before a class action has been certified.

Retroactivity

While some of the bills explicitly recognize retroactivity, most are silent on this issue. However, since a class action system mainly deals with procedural matters, it is possible that a passed bill may apply retroactively to pre-existing cases or disputes, even without any specific retroactivity provisions.

Default Class Status

The bills have two categories of default class status: the "Opt-In" default, whose judgments apply only to plaintiffs who have proactively filed claims with the court, and the "Opt-Out" default, whose judgments apply to all stakeholders regardless of whether they have filed claims, unless they proactively opt out by filing a report within a specified period. The "Opt-Out" default is more prevalent among the bills.

5.	Punitive Damages Some of the bills have punitive damages provisions awarding three to five times the actual damages.

Bill No.	No. 2215877	No. 2215824	No. 2210550	No. 2213144	No. 2206276	No. 2202896
Scope	No restrictions	Damages claims based on specific laws	No restrictions	Harm to multiple consumers due to business goods, services, or facilities	Damages claims based on specific laws	No restrictions
Eligible Plaintiffs	Korea Consumer Agency, Korea Legal Aid Corporation, nonprofit organizations	(For lawsuits confirming liability) Korea Consumer Agency, nonprofit organizations, consumer groups, small and medium-sized business cooperatives, franchisee groups	No restrictions	(For lawsuits confirming duty) Korea Consumer Agency, nonprofit organizations, consumer groups	No restrictions	No restrictions
Procedure	Litigation certification → main trial → exclusion report → distribution	Litigation to confirm liability → claim confirmation procedure(claim declaration)	Litigation certification → main trial → exclusion report → distribution	Litigation to confirm duty → claim confirmation procedure(claim declaration)	Litigation certification → main trial → exclusion report → distribution	Litigation certification → main trial → exclusion report → distribution
Opt-in/ Opt-out	Opt-out	Opt-in	Opt-out	Opt-in	Opt-out	Opt-out
Proof	Ex officio examination of evidence and interrogation of parties General descriptions permitted in petition for materials submission order Acceptance of plaintiff's claims for non-compliance of materials submission order Acceptance of plaintiff's claims for causing damage to materials subject to submission order	General descriptions permitted in petition for information submission order Acceptance of plaintiff's claims for non-compliance of information submission order Introduction of fact-finding by designated experts (expansion of expert review committee system)	Relaxing the burden of pleading Limited acceptance of trade secret defenses against materials submission orders, etc.	General descriptions permitted in petition for information submission order Acceptance of plaintiff's claims for non-compliance of information submission order	Ex officio examination of evidence and interrogation of parties General descriptions permitted in petition for document submission order	Ex officio examination of evidence and interrogation of parties Acceptance of plaintiff's claims for non-compliance of clarification order/materials submission order
Damages	Reasonable calculation by the court	Up to 5x punitive damages	Reasonable calculation by the court	Up to 3x punitive damages	Reasonable calculation by the court	Reasonable calculation by the court
Misc.	Mandatory attorney representation	Mandatory attorney representation	Mandatory attorney representation Citizen participation in trial is permitted Explicit retroactive effect	Mandatory attorney representation	Mandatory attorney representation	Mandatory attorney representation

The introduction of an expanded class action system would have huge implications for companies doing business in Korea, including higher risk of large consumers lawsuits and burdensome discovery. Our firm will continue to monitor and provide timely updates on the class action bills.

[Korean Version]

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