Police said they will apply the charge of aiding and abetting to the electric scooter lending company and seek criminal punishment in connection with an accident in which a mother in her 30s was hit by an e-scooter while trying to protect her daughter. The personal mobility (PM) industry has been lending electric scooters without license verification, drawing criticism that many accidents involve underage riders without licenses. However, observers note it will be difficult to reach actual punishment because there is a lack of clear legal grounds in current law that define the responsibility of lending companies. The industry expects that the PM Act, which is about to pass the full session of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, will put the brakes on unlicensed accidents.
The Incheon Yeonsu Police Station said on the 11th that it booked without detention a department head at an electric scooter lending company, identified as A, on suspicion of aiding and abetting unlicensed driving. Under a dual punishment clause that penalizes both the actor and the corporation, police also booked the company. A and the company are suspected of aiding unlicensed driving by lending scooters to minors without properly checking whether they held a license. The case is related to an Oct. 18 accident in Songdo-dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, in which two middle school students riding electric scooters without licenses hit a woman in her 30s walking on the sidewalk. The woman fell into critical condition and later regained consciousness, but she is reportedly suffering from amnesia.
Under the Road Traffic Act, to operate an electric scooter, riders must hold at least a type 2 motorized bicycle license, which can be issued from age 16. But most sharing companies only display guidance on their apps and lend electric scooters without separate license verification. Even on apps with a license verification process, they are designed to allow lending if license information is entered, leading to frequent cases in which teenagers borrow a parent's or acquaintance's license information to register and use the service without permission.
However, the prevailing view in the industry is that it will not be easy to lead to criminal punishment for lending companies. For the charge of aiding and abetting to apply, there must be a legal duty for lending companies to check license status, but current statutes have no provisions imposing a duty to verify licenses when lending electric scooters or penalties for failing to authenticate. Generally, car rental and car-sharing companies are categorized as car rental business operators, which are required to register as businesses and must verify driver qualifications under the Passenger Transport Service Act. By contrast, PM companies are categorized as free businesses that can operate freely after notifying local governments, and they have no grounds to collect or verify users' driver's license information.
Some PM companies agree on the need to introduce license verification but say they have been unable to mandate it due to concerns about sales impact. Even if only some companies require license verification, users are likely to move to other companies without verification procedures, making it difficult to introduce verification preemptively without legal grounds, they said. In particular, because a high share of electric scooter users are teenagers, some note that mandating license verification would inevitably deliver a direct blow to sales. In reality, most PM companies except GBike and The Swing are struggling with losses. Foreign PM companies such as Lime and Wind have exited the Korean market due to continued losses.
Still, expectations are rising that the PM Act (Act on the Safety and Promotion of Use of Personal Mobility), which is about to pass the full session of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee, will put the brakes on accidents. The committee plans to hold a full session on the 17th to vote on the PM Act. The bill includes: ▲ banning PM use by those under 16 ▲ mandating identity verification and completion of safety education at the time of lending ▲ lowering the maximum speed of PMs for lending from the current 25 kph to 20 kph. It also requires local governments to take responsibility for expanding PM parking facilities and establishing management plans and includes provisions imposing the duty to secure sufficient parking space.
Because this PM Act is the first legislative attempt to regulate personal mobility with a separate law, there is hope it can structurally improve how accidents occur. PM companies also welcome the bill. A PM industry official said, "From a company's perspective, regulation is a burden, but it is better than a situation like now where responsibility grows without legal grounds," and added, "If completing safety education and identity verification are made legal obligations, companies will be able to set operating standards and define the scope of responsibility."