Korea Consumer Agency Revises Fiber Product Quality Recommendations

- Reflects new consumption trends, legislation provided on quality standards of items with multiple losses/damages -

  The Korea Consumer Agency (www.kca.go.kr) has revised its standards for recommending quality of fiber products* to reflect new consumption trends and changed testing methods/standards for application from January 2016.

* The standards on the quality of fiber products have been legislated/operated by the KCA since 1997, with three revisions since then.

  The revised standards reflect the latest KS quality testing methods and ordinance with new quality standards for products on which there are large numbers of consumer losses and damages, including the durability and resistance to laundering on footwear (trainers). In addition standards were revised up for durability of pants and skirts and resilience to sweat and sunshine of dyed fabric.

  In addition, the new standards and consumption trends were reflected in quality standards by providing new test items and standards regarding seams splitting on see-through products and shapes distorting on leggings, etc.

  The KCA said in order to secure the reliablity of this revision from both the industry insiders and consumers, it would reflect the coordinated opinion of fiber product-related associations and industry insiders and review the feasibility of the revisions from a pool of experts from official testing institutes and consumer groups.

  The KCA’s new standards on quality recommendations on fiber products are serving as a guideline to resolving consumer disputes and is widely used as evaluation criteria for smart consumer quality comparisons and quality control by testing institutes and companies.