Uncooked food brought from outside, including fruit, beverages, liquor and snacks, will now be allowed at funeral halls in South Korea. Funeral hall operators will no longer be able to dispose of wreaths without the consent of the bereaved family, and they must provide a detailed explanation of facility fees and cost components before signing a contract.
The Fair Trade Commission said on the 25th that it had revised the standard funeral hall contract to include these provisions.
Some funeral halls had barred bereaved families from disposing of wreaths themselves and then sold them to companies that collect and resell wreaths, or imposed blanket bans on food brought from outside, drawing consumer complaints. Complaints filed with the government's e-People petition portal included cases in which funeral halls demanded that wreaths be sold to them for 1,000 won and threatened penalties when families tried to dispose of wreaths on their own.
The revision makes clear that wreaths sent by mourners belong to the funeral hall's user, the commission said. Operators must now consult the bereaved family in advance before disposing of wreaths.
The rules on outside food have also been clarified. To prevent food poisoning and other hygiene incidents, food cooked outside the premises is barred in principle, while uncooked food is permitted. Fruit, beverages, liquor, snacks, nuts and dried snacks may be brought in. Fruit must be uncut and unprocessed, and beverages and liquor must carry a use-by date or production date.
Food cooked outside the premises, such as rice, soup, pan-fried dishes, side dishes, meat and rice cakes, is barred in principle. It may be brought in as an exception if the operator and the user agree in advance. The previous standard contract had no separate provision on outside food, and funeral halls had applied blanket restrictions.
The revised contract also breaks down the components of funeral service fees into facility rental, funeral-related service charges, funeral supplies, and cleaning and management costs, and requires operators to explain them to consumers before a contract is signed. Consumers had complained that operators failed to display prices properly or did not explain what specific items were included in the price.
Use of the revised standard contract is not legally mandatory. "This revision was prepared after comprehensively considering the views of funeral hall industry associations, relevant ministries and consumer groups, so we expect funeral hall operators to actively adopt the standard contract going forward," a commission official said. "We plan to post the revised standard contract on our website and notify industry associations to strongly encourage operators to use it."
