미용업종사자의 미용기기 사용에 대한 분쟁해결과 정책적 과제

Conflict resolution and political tasks on the usage of beauty care devices by beauty artists

In contemporary society interest in and consumption of beauty treatment are increasing, raising interest in health and beauty. However, beauty-related laws are becoming factors of hindrance of beauty development. Currently the Public Health Control Act plays a basic role in the beauty art business in Korea, However the contents are in discord with international laws and its definition is not clear. Therefore it is causing conflicts of different occupations and job associations which are similar to art business. Especially, because neither definitions nor policies on beauty care devices exist in the Public Health Control Act, beauty care devices using in foreign countries cannot be used in Korea due to classification as medical devices. Under this circumstance, therefore, beauty care device uses by beauty artists violate the law. The government has tried to solve these irrational regulations. Recently, the Small and Medium Business Administration announced ‘the improvement plan of small business and young founders site regulation for public economy recovery’ in a ministerial meeting on December 28, 2016. Regulations on policy preparation for skincare devices were inclusive in this announcement. It is the question whether the regulations will be executed or not. Even though beauty industrial competitiveness was presented in the 18th Presidential Council on National Competitiveness in 2009, it was not practiced. The proposal bills for beauty law improvement have been put forth several times since 2000 including an improvement plan for regulating beauty care devices. However, so far there have been no improvements. The damage on the regulation classifying beauty devices as medical devices is not only restricted to skincare. This develops beauty devices and the beauty industry which imports and exports beauty devices. When beauty devices are exported, complicated procedures are unavoidable and when beauty devices are imported, irrational problems like reregistration procedures and costs occur. The reason why an improvement plan has not gone into practice is the resistance of the dermatologists’ association. Dermatologists tend to stand positively against harming public health by saying that beauty devices used by beauty artists cause people to suffer side effects. In contrast, anyone who has a licence to use beauty devices is able to use them in foreign countries. It is not only infringement of one’s right as a beauty artist but also people’s right to receive beauty care services. With this reason, Korean’s current law under which beauty devices are ruled as medical devices should be revised with accordance to domestic surroundings. Therefore in order to advance and globalize the beauty industry, the support and cooperation of the Korean government and relevant associations is needed to legislate and revise the beauty devices laws. The relevant associations abandon regional self-centeredness and cooperate to define ranges, size and management of beauty devices for safe use. If no collaboration exists, an arbitration agency should be established to solve the problem.