KFTC Review Request on Unfair Terms in Personal Auto Insurance Policies

On April 29, 2025, Consumers Korea, a consumer group, filed an unfair terms review request with the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) against five major non-life insurers — Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, DB Insurance, Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance, Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance, and KB Insurance — seeking a declaration that the natural disaster exclusion clauses in their Personal Automobile Insurance Policies (Articles 8(1)(4), 14(5), 19(5), and 23(3)) are unlawful and void under Articles 6 and 7(2) of the Terms and Conditions Act, and an administrative guidance that the clauses be deleted or amended.

The petitioner's core argument was that the traditional "force majeure" justification for such exclusions is no longer tenable: the respondent insurers have themselves materially contributed to the climate crisis — and thereby to the increased frequency and severity of natural disasters such as typhoons, floods, and wildfires — through their insured emission and financed emissions attributable to underwriting and investing in fossil fuel industries, making it unjust for them to invoke force majeure to deny coverage for losses caused by the very disasters their own activities have helped intensify, while profiting from selling separate natural disaster riders to policyholders who seek coverage that should already be included in the base policy.

On June 11, 2025, the KFTC closed the petition without a full review on the ground that it is impossible to conduct a review based solely on the submitted petition.