Case Studies
[Counsel] Legal counsel on the legitimacy of virtual currency issued by Company A
VEAT Law Firm provided legal counseling concerning blockchain and virtual currency based on a request by Company A, a well-known issuer of foreign virtual currency. Company A performed Project B, one of the Top 10 Projects based on the world ICO investment amount in 2018. Company A requested a legal review as to whether its virtual currency may be traded or circulated in Korea for its Project B. This law firm provided legal opinions as to whether the virtual currency of Company A violates any of the local statutes, including the Act on Capital Market and Financial Investment Business, the e-Financial Transaction Act, and the Act on Regulation of Similar Fund Raising Business, and also whether Company A's virtual currency falls under financial instruments or securities. VEAT Law Firm performed the legal review of ICO (Initial Coin Offering) and White paper as well as corporate counseling on the operation of virtual currency exchange by organizing a team to provide counsel on the virtual currency with lawyers who had education backgrounds in engineering. In particular, Il-wun Ahn, the lawyer of VEAT providing counsel on the blockchain, majored in computer science at Yonsei University and served as a developer at Naver. He was appointed as a member of the Special Committee on IT and Blockchain of the Korean Bar Association. Those in need of expert opinions on the laws of blockchain and virtual currencies are invited to contact VEAT via the following route.
[Counsel] Legal counsel provided to Joins Auto on ICT regulatory sandbox
VEAT Law Firm lawyers Do-yeong Song, Seong-ho Choi, Seung-cheol Baek, and Eun-byeol Cho provided legal consulting services to Joins Auto Co., Ltd. on the application for a regulatory sandbox for verification of its service of comparing estimates for scrapping vehicles. Joins Auto began its service in 2015 to provide information to car owners on the scrapping of vehicles and reasonable estimates for scrapping vehicles. Joins Auto experienced various difficulties, including sharply decreasing sales and criminal indictment, as it had suddenly become an illegal business operator when Article 57-2 was newly inserted into the Motor Vehicle Management Act in February of 2016. At the time, the company had discussed plans to induce investment as its sales were growing. It made efforts to continue its business rather than going into liquidation. Article 57-2 of the Motor Vehicle Management Act states, "Anyone who is not a motor vehicle scrapping business operator shall not collect or purchase motor vehicles to be scrapped, nor shall he/she engage in any acts of intermediation for a motor vehicle scrapping business operator in his/her pursuit of profit." Thus, any acts of intermediation by anyone who is not registered as a motor vehicle scrapping business operator are subject to criminal punishment, as this constitutes a breach of the Act. VEAT lawyers helped the company to file the correct application for a regulatory sandbox within a short period by supplementing them with more supporting information through an interview with their representative director on the history of the case. On March 6, 2019, the company was successfully designated by the 2nd ICT Regulatory Sandbox Review Committee as a case exempted from regulation for verification. By the current designation for ICT regulatory sandbox, Joins Auto is now permitted to provide services for two years and up to 35,000 units (2% of the total number of 880,000 vehicles scrapped per year in Korea). VEAT Law Firm provides legal counseling concerning the relevant legislation and the ICT, industrial convergence, and financial regulatory sandbox. Those in need of legal counseling on the preparation and review of application documents for regulatory sandbox are invited to contact the VEAT Law Firm.
[Counsel] Legal counsel provided on app service terms and conditions and privacy policies
VEAT Law Firm provided legal counseling on terms and conditions, phrases of authorization to access the application, and privacy policies, based on a request by Company A that provides a foreign language application service. Company A made a request to VEAT Law Firm for legal counsel to prepare plans to address various legal disputes that may arise in connection with payment for foreign language education content when a contract is terminated midway. VEAT Law Firm provided expert legal opinions to Company A to prevent any problems from arising in providing foreign language application services in various aspects, as the computation of default penalties and amounts to be returned are regulated by the Electronic Commerce Act as well as the Act on Regulation of Terms and Conditions. In particular, as the service provided by Company A is performed using an application, VEAT provided legal counsel on the consent to authorization to access the application. VEAT Law Firm provides diverse legal counseling for new startups to grow through stable management based on its experience in providing legal counsel to numerous startups. Those in need of legal counseling related to the review of terms and conditions, personal information processing policies, and authorization to access an application are invited to contact VEAT Law Firm.
[Counsel] Legal counsel on the speculative nature of fantasy game services
VEAT Law Firm provided legal counsel on the standards of speculative games in connection with a fantasy game being launched by Company A, the game developer, based on its request. Fantasy gaming (fantasy sports) is one of the game genres in which game users play sports games by organizing a virtual team based on the names and records of the actual sports players. It had been more active in foreign markets than in the local market, and in 2016 it was actively introduced in Korea, securing a large number of users. VEAT Law Firm provided comprehensive legal counsel by thoroughly examining the statutes related to games, examples of game grade classifications by the Game Rating and Administration Committee, the agencies concerned, and precedents related to the standards of speculative games, including the Criminal Act, the Act on Exceptional Cases of Regulation And Punishment of Speculative Acts ("Speculative Acts Regulation Act"), and the Act on Promotion of Game Industry ("Game Industry Act"). VEAT Law Firm is equipped with rich experience in the review of the standards of speculative games, game service terms, and conditions, etc., with lawyers who have served as legal counsel for numerous game companies. Those in need of expert legal opinions on the provision of game services as well as on the standards of speculative games are invited to contact VEAT Law Firm.
[NEWS] Lawyers playing games "We'll become a unicorn in the legal service market."
This is an article printed in The Bell featuring an interview with Managing Partner Sung-ho Choi and partner attorney Do-young Song of VEAT Law Firm. The details may be accessed via the following link.
[Counsel] Review of the beneficiary right certificate of real estate development trust for officetels and residence hotels and the ABL investment structure
VEAT Law Firm has performed services for the review of law and risk analysis related to investment in priority beneficiary interests in real estate based on a request by Investor A. VEAT Law Firm provided its opinions by reviewing the investment structure through a thorough analysis of the rank of the priority beneficiary orders, the rank of other priority beneficiaries, investment amount by other priority beneficiaries, and the maximum credit amount that Investor A considered to make a decision. VEAT Law Firm provided its opinions based on the independent review by its investment consulting team of the original register of real assets trust, contracts concluded between the contractor and the trust company (ex.: construction service contract, contract of investment management trust, loan agreement, and contract for lot sale), investment structure, etc. rather than information provided by other agencies. It is rather difficult to make an investment while trusting the information provided by a trust or fund management company, as various relations are interlinked in a complex fashion in the structure of beneficial interests in real estate trust or ABL investment. VEAT Law Firm provides legal counseling by considering the areas where legal disputes may arise in the future as well as the Civil Act and the Trustee Act based on its rich consulting experience in Real Estate Structured Finance. For any questions concerning real estate trust beneficiary interests and ABL investment structure, please contact VEAT Law Firm at your convenience.
[NEWS] Eunbyeol Cho, Partner Attorney, appointed as counsel lawyer of the Personal Information Protection Committee
Eunbyeol Cho, Partner Attorney of VEAT Law Firm, has been appointed as counsel lawyer of Personal Information Protection Committee on 28 February 2019. Partner Attorney Eunbyeol Cho has provided consulting for numerous cases related to personal information while serving as a member of the Personal Information Consulting Team of VEAT Law Firm. She continues to provide legal counseling on personal information, as she has conducted numerous legal consulting cases related to EU GDPR. For any questions on personal information law, please contact VEAT Law Firm at your convenience.
[NEWS] Attorney Ilun Ahn says, "The newly emerging precedent on blockchain is expected to provide regulatory effects"
IT & Venture Capital specializing VEAT Law Firm attorney ... "The weight of reliable projects grows" [PaxNet News - reporter Byeong-yun Kim] "Some negative legal issues were recently reported in connection with Coin Exchange. There will be affirmative effects in the long run, although they will inevitably have adverse effects across the entire industry in the short term. I expect that the blockchain regulation will become more specific as legal cases are treated one after another." In an interview with PaxNet News, Attorney li-un Ahn Ahn of VEAT Law Firm expressed his opinions on legal issues and his forecast of future regulations related to blockchain. ... For further content of the PaxNet News story, please read <Attorney Ilun Ahnsays, "The newly emerging precedent on the blockchain is expected to provide regulatory effects">.
[Column] What should be done to take action to leakage of personal information?
The Supreme Court has attracted keen attention regarding its final decisions on two lawsuits claiming damages related to leakage of personal information (2017Da207994, 2017Da256910) in December of 2018, saying that KT is not responsible for damages (hereafter "these decisions"). In these decisions, a Mr. Choi illegally acquired and leaked over 10 million cases of personal information of KT customers for five months by developing a hacking program in April 2012. In connection with this case, many victims of the personal information leakage (the claimants) filed a claim for damages against KT (the defendant), but the Supreme Court closed the case by turning down the claims from the claimants. In this case, the Supreme Court inclusively examined whether KT had taken all possible protective measures reasonably expected of an ICT service provider based on common sense as of 2012 when this case took place. In particular, it determined whether KT faithfully took technical and administrative protective measures as provided under the statutes related to personal information. The statutes before the amendment were applied to this decision, as this case of personal information leakage took place in 2012. The Korean statutes concerning the protection of personal information were amended extensively in and after 2012, newly inserting certain stringent punitive provisions on statutory damages, the recommendation of disciplinary punishment of the representatives, etc. Thus, businesses can no longer neglect their control of personal information following this decision. Instead, a penalty of up to 3 million KRW per case may now be imposed for compensation of damages caused by leakage of personal information due to the amendment to the Personal Information Protection Act. Thus, the necessity has been further reinforced for the businesses to faithfully take measures to secure the safety of personal information and to perform the standards for the technical and administrative protective actions as required under the amended statutes. VEAT Law Firm strives to provide the best services concerning personal information by deploying a personal information team consisting of lawyers responsible for cases related to legal counsel and consulting on the protection of personal information and crisis management. The personal information team of VEAT Law Firm, consisting of lawyers who majored in IT and other engineering subjects, has enjoyed a high reputation among clients as they have a high degree understanding of the IT systems that are employed to protect personal information, including precedents or authoritative interpretations of statutes related to the protection of personal information. Those requiring legal counsel and consulting in connection with their actions to incidents involving leakage of personal information or deployment of a system for the protection of personal information are invited to contact VEAT Law Firm at their convenience.
[NEWS] Sungho Choi of VEAT Law Firm selected as an excellent lawyer by the Korean Bar Association
Managing Partner Sungho Choi Choi of VEAT Law Firm selected as an excellent lawyer by the Korean Bar Association; attended ceremony held on the 18th. Managing Partner Sungho Choi Choi was awarded a commendation as the Association highly evaluated his active participation in various activities of the Association is aiming to build a society desirable for starting a new hi-tech venture as well as providing legal counsel to many startup businesses. VEAT Law Firm promises to continue to provide effective legal counseling as partners for startups.