Under Korean civil law, when a minor (under age 20) enter into legal acts, a parental consent or consent of a court-appointed representative is required for such acts to be given legal effect.

The Supreme Court recently ruled in a case involving confirmation of non-existence of credit card debt of minors (2003 Da 60297; Decision rendered April 15, 2005) that even if the credit card usage agreement between a minor and a credit card company may be deemed without any effect, the minor has an obligation to return the amount of unjust enrichment gained as a result of the credit card usage. Thus, the Court confirmed the lower courts?decisions that had required the minors who used their credit cards (that were obtained without the consents required under applicable law) to pay back the amounts of the credit card they used.

This case was started back in April of 2002 when several minors filed an action for confirmation of non-existence of credit card payment obligation, arguing that the credit cards that were issued to them as minors are invalid.

The Supreme Court stated in the above decision that the individual sale and purchase contracts between the credit card members and the stores that are affiliated with relevant credit card were independent of the cancelled credit card usage agreement and were thus still effective, and that the minors were thus required to return the unjust enrichment gained by the relevant credit card company having made the credit card payments to the stores at which the minors used their credit cards.