대법원 판례에 나타난 소비자문제 분석 (Consumer Problem Analysis in Supreme Court Precedents)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국소비자정책교육학회
· 수록지 정보 : 소비자정책교육연구 / 8권 / 2호 / 43 ~ 77페이지
· 저자명 : 심유조, 여정성

초록

본 연구는 최고법원인 대법원의 판례를 분석하여 심각하고 중대한 문제로 어떠한 소비자문제가 발생하고, 그문제가 어떻게 해결되고 있는지 알아보고자 하였다. 이를 통해 소비자정책 적용의 현주소를 진단해보고, 중대한소비자문제를 해결하기 위하여 소비자에게 보다 필요한 소비자정책을 제안하고자 하였다. 이를 위해 소비자문제관련 대법원 판례의 모집단을 확정하고, 소비자문제를 분류하여 빈도분석을 실시하였으며, 소비자에게 의미있는판례를 서술하였다. 연구결과는 다음과 같다.
첫째, 일관성 있는 검색기준과 추출기준을 설정하고, ‘소비자문제 관련 대법원 판례’로 전체 대법원 민사사건판례 중에서 총 289개를 추출해내었다.
둘째, 대법원 판례에 나타난 소비자문제에는 주로 민법이 적용되었고, 그 다음으로는 개별법과 약관규제법이많이 적용되었다. 소비자문제 내용으로는 품질문제와 정보문제가 가장 많이 나타났고, 재산적 피해로 인한 소송이 비재산적 피해로 인한 소송보다 많았다. 상품 중에서는 금융․보험 분야 소송이 전체의 반을 차지하였고, 보건․의료, 관광․운송관련 소송이 많이 나타났다. 고의․과실에서는 과실이 문제된 경우가 대부분을 차지하여 귀책판단이 어려운 사건이 대법원까지 올라온다는 것을 확인할 수 있었다. 시기별로 60～70년대에는 관광․운송,보건․의료 분야의 문제만이 나타났으나, 80년대 들어 금융․보험 분야의 문제가 나타나기 시작하여 90년대 이후 소비자문제 관련 대법원 판례의 획기적 증가에 견인차 역할을 하였다. 이상을 통해 대법원 판례에 나타난 소비자문제는 인적 손해이거나 고액의 물적 손해로 피해의 정도가 심각하고, 책임소재가 불분명하여 시비판단이 어렵다는 특성을 가짐을 확인할 수 있었다.
셋째, 대법원 판결을 통해 본 소비자문제의 해결은 소비자에게 유리하게 판단된 경우가 그렇지 않은 경우보다19% 더 높게 나타나, 대법원 소송까지 오게 된 소비자문제는 조금 더 소비자에게 유리하게 판단된 경향이 있다고 할 수 있다. 민법 적용 시 소비자에게 유리하게 판단된 경우가 많았고, 정보문제와 안전문제의 경우에 소비자에게 유리한 판결을 내린 비율이 높았으며, 재산적 피해에 비해 비재산적 피해에 소비자에게 더 유리한 판결이많았다. 상품에서는 주거․시설, 관광․운송, 보건․의료 순으로 소비자에게 유리하게 판결된 경우가 많았고, 금융․보험상품은 소비자에게 유리․불리 판단이 비슷한 수로 나타났다. 투자개념이 강한 주식거래로 인한 피해에서는 소비자가 유리한 판결을 받기 더 어려웠음을 알 수 있다.
이상의 연구결과와 서술한 판례를 바탕으로 소비자정책에 대한 제안점을 도출하였다.

영어초록

The purpose of this study is to explore the cases of Supreme Court precedents with regard to consumer problems. Supreme Court precedents are significant indicators of how consumer policies and acts have been applied in dealing with consumer problems. In addition, Supreme Court precedents also reveal the extent of consumer problems since obtaining a Supreme Court decision requires customers to bear enormous cost, efforts, and time of lawsuit. Thus, investigating Supreme Court precedents as outcomes of consumer complaint behavior is crucial for understanding serious consumer problems.
To analyze Supreme Court precedents the current study performed a content analysis of Supreme Court precedents involving consumer problems. First, I selected a sample of Supreme Court precedents regarding consumer problems after considering the concepts of “consumer” and “consumer problems.” A total of 289 precedents were used for the analysis. Second, I categorized the consumer problems and calculated frequencies for each category. Finally, I described the patterns of significant precedents. The Following are the results of the content analysis.
First, the most frequently used law in consumer problem lawsuits was civil law, followed by separate law and the Regulation of Standardized Contracts Act. With regard to the contents of consumer problems, issues of product quality, information, and unfair trade were the most common (20% or above per each issue) and about 15% were regarding safety issues. The lawsuits for loss of property value were 1.2 times of those for non-property damages. The loss amount of property value was from 1 million to 2.5 billion KRW and cases involving high value of property loss were more common. Among lawsuits on property value loss, claims for insurance coverage and stock investment return were the most common. Among lawsuits on product complaints,about half were regarding financial/insurance products, 28% were medical lawsuits, and 10% were about travel/delivery. About 83% of the lawsuits were negligence lawsuits (54% for the company’s negligence; 29% for the consumer’s negligence); it implies that the obscure cases that required the determination of factual causations were likely to require Supreme Court precedents. Among defaults and torts, most of them were related to a company’s tort (about 80%). Thus, it is obvious that consumer problems in Supreme Court precedents involved either physical damage or property damage with serious loss, cases for which it was difficult to determine factual causations.
Second, there were differences in the contents of consumer problems in Supreme Court precedents over time. In the 1960's and 1970's, the most common problems were about product quality and safety. However, the issue of unfair trade emerged in the 1980’s and significantly increased in the 1990’s. In terms of the contents of consumer problems, the number of those regarding information issues has increased radically in the 1990’s compared to the 1980’s.
Supreme Court precedents about the consumer's property value loss have emerged since the 1980’s and became common in the 1990’s. However, there were only Supreme Court cases about the consumer's non-property damages in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. With regard to the type of products, claims for travel/delivery and medical lawsuits were common in the 1960’s and the 1970’s. Lawsuits involving finance/insurance products emerged in the 1980’s and increased radically in the 1990’s, which has contributed to the increase of Supreme Court precedents involving consumer problems. In the 2000’s, the most common and increasingly popular type of consumer lawsuit was that involving finance/insurance products, followed by medical lawsuits.
Third, consumer problem lawsuits in the Supreme Court were likely to rule in favor of consumers in the following cases: (a) cases to which the civil law was applied, (b) cases about information issues or product safety, and (c) cases about non-property damages. With regard to the type of products, claims for residence/facility, travel/delivery, and medical lawsuits (listed in order of frequency) were likely to rule in favor of consumers. However, lawsuits about investments were less likely to rule in favor of consumers.

참고자료

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