The prosecutor's appeal is dismissed.

Summary of Grounds for Appeal

Although the defendant is in the position of the intermediate manager, the defendant has a separate person in the U.S. and managed the organization through the defendant's account, and in collusion with F and B, etc., who are in charge of transferring the sales proceeds of advertising tickets and registering and returning the subordinate members.

Nevertheless, the judgment of the court below that found the defendant not guilty on the grounds that the defendant operated a multi-stage sales organization is erroneous.

2. Determination

A. According to relevant statutes and legal principles, Article 13(1) of the Door-to-Door Sales Act (hereinafter “ Door-to-Door Sales Act”), multi-level marketing business entities are registered with the Fair Trade Commission or the competent Mayor/Do Governor by submitting an application form, etc. as prescribed by Presidential Decree. Article 58(1)1 of the Door-to-Door Sales Act provides penal provisions for a person who establishes, manages, or operates a multi-level marketing organization without registration as above.

Meanwhile, Article 2 subparag. 6 of the Door-to-Door Sales Act provides that "multi-level marketing business entity" means a person who opens, manages, and operates a multi-level marketing organization to run multi-level marketing business (hereinafter "multi-level marketing business entity") and a person who joins a multi-level marketing organization as a salesman (hereinafter "multi-level marketing salesperson").

As above, the Door-to-Door Sales Act defines multi-level marketing operators as multi-level marketing operators and multi-level marketing operators, and imposes an obligation to register multi-level marketing business only on multi-level marketing operators. In order to punish multi-level marketing business without registration, multi-level marketing operators are multi-level marketing operators who establish, manage and operate their own multi-level marketing organizations, and in order to punish multi-level marketing business operators as a joint principal

(See Supreme Court Decision 2015Do5355 Decided October 29, 2015, etc.). B.