Supreme Court▶ Click here for a larger view
The Supreme Court has ruled that Coway should compensate consumers for the fact that it concealed the fact that nickel was detected in the ice purifier.
The 3rd division of the Supreme Court (Chief Justice Roh Jeong-hee) announced on the 20th that it had confirmed the lower court ruling that “the 78 plaintiffs should be compensated 1 million won each” in the appeals court for damages filed against Coway by 78 water purifier consumers, including Mr. A.
The Supreme Court said, “A party to a continuing contract may notify the other party in advance that there is a risk of harm to the other’s life, body, health, etc., so that the other party can choose an appropriate way to avoid the risk, or take reasonable measures to prevent the risk from occurring. By doing so, we have an obligation to make sure that the risk has been eliminated.”
The court continued, “In particular, if one party to a continuous contract is a manufacturer who mass-produces highly technologically intensive products and the other party is a consumer, it is more necessary to acknowledge the manufacturer’s duty to notify in order to resolve the side effects caused by information imbalance.” added.
According to the Supreme Court, in July 2015, Coway received consumer reports and employee reports that ‘silver metallic substances’ were emitted from its ice purifier. In August of that year, it was discovered that nickel plating had peeled off from the ice cooling structure (evaporator) and had been mixed with drinking water in a cold water tank.
However, Coway did not inform the purchasing/renting consumers of water purifiers of this fact, and only published a public apology after a media report in July 2016.
298 consumers, including Mr. A, filed a claim for damages against Coway, claiming 3 million won each.
In the first and second trials, consumers’ claims that side effects such as skin abnormalities, allergies, and itching occurred because they drank nickel-containing water. The symptom the plaintiff is talking about is not an ‘accident’ for which the manufacturer is responsible under the Product Liability Act, since it is a problem that can appear from various causes in everyday life.
In addition, the civil law did not acknowledge ‘liability for damages due to illegal acts’, saying that there was insufficient evidence to support a causal relationship that these symptoms were caused by drinking water from purified water.
However, it was judged that compensation for damages was necessary for Coway’s failure to fulfill its obligation to inform (duty of notice) of the occurrence of defects. The intention is that there is a ‘liability for damages due to non-performance’ under the Civil Act because the consumer’s right to receive important information is infringed.
The amount of compensation was set at 100 million won each. The first and second trial courts acknowledged Coway’s liability for compensation to the 78 consumers who directly entered into contracts for purchasing and renting water purifiers, but held that it was not liable for compensation to the rest of the plaintiffs, including families who drank water from the water purifier.
The Supreme Court affirmed the judgment in favor of the plaintiff, noting that there were no problems with the judgment of the second trial, such as misunderstanding of the law.
[연합뉴스]
Copyrights ⓒ Yonhap News. Unauthorized reproduction and redistribution prohibited
