The Korean Commercial Code(KCC) were amended two times in February and May, 2009. This article deals with revised articles of the KCC which are related with electronic exercise of shareholders' voting rights.
Even though the article 363⑴ of the KCC introduced the notice of shareholders' meeting by electronic transmission, it has not been utilized at all because there was no specific regulations to follow. Also the 2009 amendment of the KCC requires the shareholder's prior approval of the notice by electronic transmission. Therefore even if a corporation adopts the notice by electronic transmission, it cannot send the notice by electronic transmission without shareholder's approval.
According to revised article 289⑶ of the KCC, the public notice by electronic media is allowed in addition to current public notice to federal register and daily newspaper. In order to use the public notice by electronic media, the article of incorporation must be amended via special quorum of shareholders' meeting. This article recommends the eradication of the public notice with respect to financial statements of listed companies because they submit the financial statements to Korea's Financial Services Commission(KFSC) and the statements are disclosed through the Data Analysis Retrieval Transfer of the KFSC.
The article 352bis of the KCC introduces shareholders' list by electronic media and it allows to include email addresses of shareholders. Since there is no restriction as to the scope of disclosure for shareholders' list under the KCC, this article recommends not to include shareholders' email addresses within shareholders' list and keep them separately.
Also written ballot by transmission of shareholders's meeting was introduced through the article of 368 the forth. This article suggests not to limit the process of verifying shareholder to electronic signature through officially authentication. Also it reviews the problems of amended resolutions which are proposed during shareholders's meeting, the deadline of the ballot by electronic transmission.