South Korean Networks to Amend Contacts

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission has ordered the local mobile phone networks that they can no longer demand full settlement of a handset payment plan if just one phone bill is missed. Customers sometimes buy handsets and pay for them over a series of months. Under the terms of their contract, the mobile network can demand full payment for the handset if one months bill for call charges is missed.

The FTC ordered SK Telecom, KTF and LG Telecom to ammend the terms of their contracts within two months.

"Under the current law, companies are able to demand the payment of the entire bill only after two or more missed payments, and the amount in arrears must surpass 10 percent of the bill," the FTC said in a statement.

The FTC also announced that the mobile phone networks should compensate for loss of service on a daily basis, not an hourly basis, for service problems of more than three hours."

Posted to the site on 6th October 2003