South korea: South Korean business lobbies on Monday called for the government and parliament to speed up efforts to abolish the breach of trust charge under criminal law without introducing any new regulations that might continue to restrict their managerial activities.

According to Yonhap News Agency, in September, the government and the ruling Democratic Party announced plans to scrap the breach of trust charge under criminal law, assessing that it has excessively restricted normal business activities. A group of eight business lobbies, including the Federation of Korean Industries, expressed concern over the ambiguity surrounding the definition and punishment of the breach of trust offense. They argued that businesses are at risk of facing criminal punishments even for normal management activities due to this ambiguity.

The business lobbies emphasized the lack of clear progress in the government's pledge to push for reform, urging for swift legislative action. They called for an unconditional and full overhaul of breach of trust charges, suggesting that relevant misconduct should be punished under fraud or embezzlement charges or resolved through civil lawsuits, as practiced in the United States or Britain.

Furthermore, the business lobbies warned against the introduction of new regulations on businesses, specifically opposing the implementation of a punitive damages system as a supplementary measure to the abolition of breach of trust charges. The punitive damages system involves additional compensation beyond actual damages to punish offenders and prevent recurrence of the offense.