Movie theaters must provide assistance for people with visual or hearing impairments, South Korea's top court said Thursday, taking sides with four plaintiffs who said not having such aids is discriminatory to people with disabilities.
The Supreme Court reversed and remanded the second-instance court decision that ruled partially in favor of the plaintiffs. It took issue with the Seoul High Court ruling that said assistance for people with visual or hearing impairments should be mandated only for screens with at least 300 seats.
The second-instance ruling also said that visually or hearing-assisted screenings should only account for 3 percent of all screenings.
"By applying limits for both screening frequencies and screen sizes, the ruling only considered the financial burden of the defendants (theaters), and thus overstepped the boundaries of (the court's) discretion," the Supreme Court said in its ruling.
It stressed that not providing the plaintiffs with assistance for their visual or hearing impairments constitutes discrimination, as stipulated by the Act on the Prohibition of Discrimination Against Persons with Disabilities and Remedy Against Infringement of Their Rights.
The Supreme Court ordered the appellate court to review ways to abolish discrimination against people with disabilities seeking to enjoy cultural content, without inducing excessive confusion for people without disabilities.
The plaintiffs, who have visual or hearing impairments, filed the lawsuit in 2016 against operators of the country's largest theater franchises — CGV, Lotte Cultureworks and Megabox JoongAng.
The plaintiffs said people with disabilities should have the equal right to watch films like others.
They won the first-instance ruling in 2017, when the court ruled that theaters must provide aids such as audio descriptions, subtitles or hearing aids for people who have trouble seeing or hearing.
The court also said moviegoers should be notified of which films have the special aids and when and at which screens they are available via the websites operated by the theater franchises.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
