How to Apply for Conversion of Business Suspension to a Fine and the Period for Filing an Administrative Appeal — What to Do Within the Opinion Submission Period After Receiving a Prior Notice

3-Line Summary

If you receive a business suspension prior notice, you can request a conversion to a fine (administrative fine) along with explanatory materials within the opinion submission period (10 days or more) stated in the notice (Administrative Procedures Act Articles 21 and 27, Food Sanitation Act Article 82).

The fine is calculated as daily amount per annual sales bracket × number of days of business suspension, and there are cases defined by laws and regulations where a conversion to a fine is not possible depending on the nature of the violation.

If the disposition has already been issued, you must file an administrative appeal within 90 days from the date you became aware of the disposition, or within 180 days from the date the disposition occurred, and if you need to continue business operations, you should also apply for a suspension of execution (stay) (Administrative Appeals Act Articles 27 and 30).

Table of Contents

A Prior Notice in the Afternoon After Lunch Service
A Prior Notice and a Disposition Notice are Different Documents
Grounds for Converting Business Suspension to a Fine
How is the Fine Amount Calculated?
Preparing the Opinion Submission and the Application for Conversion to a Fine
The Period for Filing an Administrative Appeal After a Disposition is Issued
Things to Check When You Receive a Business Suspension Prior Notice
Scope of Administrative Agent (Administrative Scrivener) Services

1. A Prior Notice in the Afternoon After Lunch Service

I work as an administrative agent (administrative scrivener) in Songdo, Incheon. I would like to introduce a reconstructed case from one of my consultations.

The contact came around 3:00 PM on a weekday. They said it was the time when the lunch customers had left and they were preparing ingredients for dinner. It was a gukbap (soup with rice) restaurant operated by a couple in their 30s in Songdo. A photo was sent first via text message. It was an “Administrative Disposition Prior Notice” sent by the District Office’s Hygiene Department.

The situation was as follows. There was a regular hygiene inspection by the District Office two weeks ago, and one container of kkakdugi (radish kimchi) seasoning sauce that was two days past its expiration date was found in the bottom compartment of the commercial refrigerator in the kitchen. The husband, who is the owner, said, “I put a new container in the front and didn’t see the one in the back.” The sauce was discarded immediately that day, and he also signed a confirmation in front of the inspecting official.

The notice included the information that a 15-day business suspension was scheduled, along with guidance to submit an opinion by the deadline if there were any. There were 8 days remaining. The first thing the wife, who is also an owner, asked was this: “If we close for half a month, what will happen to the wages of our two employees, and where will our regular customers go?”

2. A Prior Notice and a Disposition Notice are different documents

During the consultation, I first verified the names of the documents. Many people believe that once they receive a Prior Notice, the business suspension is already finalized. In reality, that is not the case.

Prior Notice: This is a document through which an administrative agency informs you of the details and grounds of a disadvantageous disposition, and the fact that you may submit an opinion along with the deadline, before the disposition is made (Article 21 of the Administrative Procedures Act). At this stage, the disposition has not yet been issued.
Disposition Notice (Notice of Administrative Disposition): This is the document that actually imposes a business suspension or a fine after the agency has reviewed the submitted opinions. The period for filing an administrative appeal is calculated based on this disposition.

What can be done during the Prior Notice stage is the submission of an opinion. Pursuant to Article 27 of the Administrative Procedures Act, you can submit an opinion in writing or via information and communication networks and attach supporting materials for your claims. The administrative agency must sincerely review the submitted opinions. The deadline for submitting an opinion is written on the notice and is usually set for 10 days or more.

The documents this couple received were a Prior Notice. Therefore, the first task was to decide what to submit within 8 days.

3. Grounds for Converting Business Suspension into a Surcharge

What the couple wanted was to avoid stopping their business operations. There was little room to dispute the violation itself, as the sauce was in the refrigerator and they had signed the confirmation statement. Therefore, rather than denying the violation, we decided to organize their opinion toward changing the type of administrative disposition.

The legal basis is Article 82 of the Food Sanitation Act. This clause stipulates that in cases where a business suspension must be imposed, a surcharge may be imposed in lieu of such disposition. You must keep these two points in mind:

Converting to a surcharge is at the discretion of the administrative agency. Since the regulation states “may be imposed,” it does not change automatically upon application. The administrative agency makes a judgment based on the severity of the violation, whether corrective measures were taken, and the inconvenience caused by the business suspension.
There are violations that cannot be converted to a surcharge. The proviso of Article 82, Paragraph 1, excludes cases prescribed by the Prime Minister’s Decree for serious violations, such as the sale of hazardous food. Therefore, we must first check whether our shop’s specific violation falls under these excluded categories.

The violation in this case was storing raw materials that had passed their expiration date for cooking purposes. According to the administrative disposition standards in Annex 23 of the Enforcement Rule of the Food Sanitation Act, a first-time violation is set at a 15-day business suspension, and it did not qualify for an exemption from the fine. However, since the disposition standards and exemption grounds are frequently amended, I re-checked the current provisions before writing the written opinion.

4. How is the amount of the administrative fine calculated?

My client’s husband, the owner, asked the following question regarding the amount: “If the administrative fine is higher than the loss from closing for fifteen days, wouldn’t it be meaningless?”

Article 53 of the Enforcement Decree of the Food Sanitation Act and [Annex 1] stipulate that administrative fines are calculated as follows:

Base Sales: The total sales for the one-year period preceding the year in which the disposition date falls. If it has been less than a year due to a new opening, the sales for the period of operation are converted to a one-year equivalent.
Daily Fine Amount: An amount determined according to the annual sales bracket. The larger the sales, the larger the daily amount.
Total Fine Amount: Daily fine amount × Number of days of business suspension. In this case, it is 15 days.

The couple’s shop had sales based on last year’s VAT filing, and by multiplying the daily amount for that specific bracket by 15 days, we calculated the approximate administrative fine. We compared this with the sales lost by closing for fifteen days, the rent and labor costs that would still be incurred during that period, and the possibility of regular customers moving to other shops. The couple chose the administrative fine option.

It may be difficult to pay the administrative fine all at once. Article 29 of the Framework Act on Administrative Procedures allows for applications for postponement of payment deadline or installment payments when circumstances warrant it. Conversely, if the payment is not made within the deadline, the imposition of the fine may be canceled and reverted to a business suspension, or it may proceed to delinquent collection procedures (Article 82, Paragraph 4 of the Food Sanitation Act); therefore, the payment schedule must be determined in advance.

5. Preparing the Written Opinion and Application for Conversion to a Fine

Out of the remaining 8 days, I allocated 4 days to gathering materials and 2 days to writing and reviewing the opinion. I left the final 2 days as a buffer. The prepared materials are as follows:

Circumstances of Violation: I truthfully described the circumstances of how the rear container was overlooked while placing a new container in front, the fact that the sauce in question was discovered during an inspection before being used for cooking, and the fact that it was discarded on the same day. I organized the details chronologically so that it would not read like an excuse.
Corrective Action Materials: I attached photos of the new refrigerator storage method implemented the day after the inspection (FIFO shelf markings, labels for opening dates and expiration dates on each container) and a copy of the newly created weekly inventory checklist.
Hygiene Education Completion Materials: I gathered the hygiene education completion certificates for the couple and the two employees.
Violation History: I noted that there had been no similar violations or other administrative dispositions during the 6 years since the business opened.
Circumstances Resulting from Business Suspension: I organized the payroll records for the two employees, the monthly rent contract, and the estimated decrease in sales during a 15-day closure into numerical data.
Request for Conversion to a Fine: At the end of the opinion, I clearly stated the intent to “request the imposition of a fine in lieu of the business suspension disposition pursuant to Article 82 of the Food Sanitation Act.” Since some district offices require a separate application form for conversion to a fine, I called the relevant department in advance to confirm the required format.

Based on these materials, our office prepared the written opinion and submitted it to the district office two days before the deadline. After submission, we confirmed the receipt status and the person in charge.

6. The Period for Filing an Administrative Appeal After a Disposition is Issued

About three weeks after submitting the written opinion, the disposition notice arrived. In this case, instead of a 15-day business suspension, a disposition to impose a fine was issued. However, this result is based on the specific violation details, corrective data, and the judgment of the administrative agency in this case; even if the same application is made, the results will vary depending on the matter.

If you have missed the stage of submitting an opinion, or if a business suspension was issued despite submitting an opinion, the next step is an administrative appeal.

Claim Period: A claim must be filed within 90 days from the date the disposition was known or 180 days from the date the disposition occurred (Article 27 of the Administrative Appeal Act). If either of these periods passes, a claim can no longer be filed. Generally, the date you receive the written disposition constitutes the “date known.”
Jurisdiction: If the disposition was made by a District Head, the Metropolitan/Provincial Administrative Appeal Commission will deliberate on the case.
Suspension of Execution (Stay): Even if an administrative appeal is filed, the business suspension proceeds as scheduled. To continue business operations until a ruling is issued, you must also file a request for suspension of execution (Article 30 of the Administrative Appeal Act). Since the decision must be made before the business suspension start date to be meaningful, it is advisable to submit it along with the claim.
Changed Ruling: The Commission may issue a ruling that not only cancels the disposition but also changes it to a different disposition (Article 43, Paragraph 3 of the Administrative Appeal Act). Examples include changing a business suspension into a fine or reducing the duration of the suspension.

In an administrative appeal, changing a fine is ultimately a matter of contesting the requirements of specific laws and the discretion of the administrative agency. It is difficult to be successful if it appears that the secondary orders issued by the administrative agency were not followed or if there was intent regarding the violation. Since the corrective data prepared during the submission of opinions is used as-is in the administrative appeal, you must meticulously keep records from the very beginning.

7. Things to Check When You Receive a Business Suspension Pre-notification

If you have received a similar notice, please check the following in order.

Check Document Name and Deadline

First, determine whether the document you received is a Pre-notification or a Disposition Notice. If it is a Pre-notification, write down the deadline for submitting an opinion; if it is a Disposition Notice, write down the period for filing an administrative appeal (90 days/180 days) on your calendar.
Check the Business Suspension Start Date written on the Disposition Notice. If a suspension of execution (stay) is necessary, a decision must be made before that date.

Check Eligibility for Conversion to a Fine

Check whether the violating clause is subject to an Exclusion from Fines under the proviso of Article 82, Paragraph 1 of the Food Sanitation Act.
Calculate the Daily Fine Amount × Number of Suspension Days based on the previous year’s sales and compare it with the loss from business closure.

Required Documents

A copy of the Pre-notification or Disposition Notice
A statement of circumstances regarding the violation (chronological order, fact-based)
Photos of corrective actions, checklists, and disposal confirmation materials
Hygiene education certificate
Materials that can prove you have no prior history of violations
Sales data (VAT return, etc.), payroll records, and lease agreement
Application for conversion to a fine (if the district office has a specific form) or a request phrase within the written opinion

Requirements and processing results may vary depending on the details of the violation and the jurisdiction, so individual verification is required.

8. Administrative Agent Office Services

Hwang Yunsang Administrative Agent Office prepares and files documents on the client’s behalf, including written opinions and administrative appeals related to disadvantageous dispositions such as business suspension. The tasks handled in this case are as follows:

Reviewing the prior notice and managing the deadline for submitting opinions
Checking whether the violation is eligible for exemption from fines and calculating the estimated fine amount
Organizing the explanation of the violation, corrective materials, and sales data
Preparing the written opinion requesting conversion to a fine and handling the submission to the district office
Confirming the results of the disposition and, if necessary, preparing the preparation of administrative appeal requests and applications for suspension of execution (stay)

On the day the fine imposition notice was received, the wife (the proprietor) said she had attached date labels to each container while making a new batch of kkakdugi (radish kimchi) for dinner service. A weekly inspection checklist is posted on the inside of the refrigerator door.

This text has been reconstructed for better understanding and is not related to any specific person or event.

This is an administrative agent (administrative scrivener) office located in Songdo (POSCO Tower Songdo), Incheon. We handle administrative appeals, licensing/reporting document preparation/filing services, immigration for foreigners (visas/residency), regular administrative management, as well as submission of written opinions and administrative appeal requests regarding business suspension or fines. If you have received a prior notice of business suspension in Incheon or Songdo, you may start by sending us a photo of the notice. If you are curious about similar situations, please feel free to contact us.

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