[뉴스토마토 정서윤 기자] From next year, ‘unregistered dojo’ trainees who are not affiliated with the Korea Taekwondo Association will be able to receive promotion and dan evaluation. Accordingly, city/provincial associations regularly hold irregular examinations for unregistered seals, and the regular and irregular examination schedules are also integrated and disclosed in advance.
The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 31st that the Korea Taekwondo Association and the affiliated association taekwondo studios improved and reached an agreement on existing practices that allowed only taekwondo schools to receive promotions and dan evaluations.
The promotion/dan examination is a system that measures the technical achievement or training level of Taekwondo practitioners and assigns grades. Those under the age of 15 will be judged for promotion, and those over 15 will be judged for promotion.
In February 2018, the Seoul Taekwondo Association (Seo Tae-hyeop) restricted ‘association registration’ for Taekwondo studios in public facilities such as schools to protect the vested rights of existing members. The Fair Trade Commission investigated Seo Tai-hyup’s unfair member registration refusal and imposed a correction order on Seo Tai-hyup in June.
The poom and dan of Taekwondo are important factors that give authority and honor to the skill of the trainee. As a result, Taekwondo studios, which cannot receive promotion and dan screening, have considerable difficulties in attracting trainees and conducting business.
Currently, the Korea Taekwondo Association has regulations and procedures so that, in principle, all taekwondo masters can receive promotion and dan evaluation. The type of examination is divided into ‘regular examination’ for registration and other ‘irregular examination’. Unregistered stamps can only take the non-regular examination.
However, the examination of unregistered dojo has hardly been held so far, making it virtually impossible for unregistered dojo trainees to take the examination. Regular examinations for registered dojos were held several times a month, but unregistered dojo examinations were held only once in the past five years (December 3, 2016).
As a result, ‘registration of association’ was virtually mandatory in the taekwondo market, and there was concern that it would cause unfair behavior or impair consumer welfare.
According to the registration status of the national Taekwondo Centers Association last year, the number of registered taekwondo studios was 10,298. Of these, the number of registered stamps by the association reached 9,890, or 96%. There were only 408 unregistered seals (4%).
The Fair Trade Commission judged that there is a potential for unfair acts to recur, such as city/provincial associations refusing to register specific business operators, depriving them of opportunities for promotion and award screening, and blocking market entry.
In addition, city and provincial associations can collect an average of 3 million won from the association registration fee without much effort based on their exclusive review authority in the region, making it difficult to have an incentive to improve services for registered dojos and trainees.
From next year, the Korea Taekwondo Association has decided to make all examinations regular so that unregistered dojang practitioners can also apply for promotion and dan examinations. Accordingly, city and provincial associations are planning to hold regular examinations as well as irregular examinations for unregistered seals on a regular basis. However, due to COVID-19, details such as the method and number of events will be decided in stages.
In addition, it was decided to increase the predictability of front-line studios by unifying the regular and irregular screening schedules in advance.
Park Se-min, head of the Fair Trade Commission’s market structure improvement division, said, “With this system improvement, the autonomy of joining the association will be enhanced, thereby promoting competition between registered and unregistered dojos, and it is expected that services to trainees and parents will be improved.”
The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 31st that it had reached an agreement with the Korea Taekwondo Association to improve the existing practice so that only Taekwondo schools of affiliated associations could receive promotion and dan evaluation. The photo shows the Taekwondo Promotion Team Judging Competition. photo/news
Sejong = Reporter Jeong Seo-yoon tyvodlove@etomato.com
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