Gyeonggi Province: "Stop Unfair Trade Practices Hurting SMEs"

Gyeonggi Province is launching education and consulting programs titled "Stop Unfair Trade Practices" to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) within the province that are exposed to unfair trade practices.

Gyeonggi Province announced on the 18th that it will conduct "Fair Trade Education and Unfair Trade Legal Consulting" six times throughout this year, starting from the 19th of this month.

The education program was prepared to convey expert know-how that can prevent unfair trade-related damages, based on the determination that prevention is the best defense against unfair trade harm. The program will be implemented continuously throughout the year, divided by region and industry sector.

Accordingly, the first education session will be held on July 19 at the Gyeonggi Economic Science Promotion Agency in Suwon, targeting SME entrepreneurs in the province. Subsequently, fair trade education sessions will be held six times in total across different sectors including construction subcontracting, software, and franchising.

Through this education, participants—SME entrepreneurs—will learn fair trade laws that they need to know, as well as practical fair trade operations such as the subcontracting contract presumption system to prevent damage to small business owners. The focus is on strengthening the practical competency of SME entrepreneurs so they can respond wisely when various disputes arise.

Additionally, the province will conduct free one-on-one consulting simultaneously with business entrepreneurs by deploying five experts, including investigators from the Fair Trade Commission and dedicated lawyers from the Gyeonggi Province Unfair Trade Consultation Center.

Beyond this, the province plans to additionally implement customized fair trade education for Gyeonggi's specialized industries such as furniture, textiles, and publishing, which are representative industries in northern Gyeonggi.