The defendant shall be innocent.

1. The summary of the facts charged is the director and the officer of the E-company managing the D shop in Jung-gu in Seoul, and the victim F is the representative director of the E-company.

At around 10:00 on October 29, 2016, the Defendant: (a) placed a shoulder belt with 18 members of the merchants’ association; (b) opened each shop; and (c) "the end to pay the management expenses because the management expenses were erroneously imposed;" and (d) distributed 174 copies of the notice of management expenses to the store merchants on October 2016, the Defendant interfered with the victim's management of commercial buildings by force by being returned from the store merchants to the store merchants.

2. Determination

A. The defendant and his defense counsel found that the defendant erroneously imposed management expenses on store merchants in October 2016.

That fact, however, asserts that there is no fact of exercising any power.

B. The crime of interference with business is established when a person interferes with another’s business by deceptive means or by force (Article 314(1) of the Criminal Act). The term “power” refers to any force that may cause confusion in the suppression of a person’s free will (see Supreme Court Decision 2010Do7733, Oct. 27, 201). Moreover, the power of interference with business ought to be exercised in principle against the victim. As such, in cases where a third party, other than the victim, is the victim of the exercise of said power, the crime of interference with business against the victim cannot be deemed to be established unless there are special circumstances that make it possible to directly control the victim’s free will, thereby resulting in the direct occurrence of the likelihood of suppressing the victim’s free will.

At this time, whether the victim's free will is likely to be directly controlled by the exercise of force against a third party or not shall be determined by the intent or purpose of the exercise of force, the relationship between the third party and the victim, the place or method of the exercise of force, etc., whether the victim's awareness about the exercise of force against a third party, and the exercise of force against a third party.