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06.02 (일)

S. Korea’s antitrust watchdog draws up bill to punish platform giants for market power abuse

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South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has come up with a bill designed to prevent and punish the unlawful and bullying tactics by large online platform providers on smaller merchant members.

The antitrust watchdog on Monday said that it is proposing a revision in the online platform act to include the imposition a fine of up to double the damage caused by a platform service provider on merchant members and contractors under their market dominance.

The revision comes on top of existing fair trade and e-commerce laws to protect small businesses from the risk of online platform service giants’ possible abuse of power through market dominance. The change will be targeted on monitoring online platform giants, such as internet portal sites Naver and Kakao, as well as food delivery app Baedal Minjok and online marketplace operator Coupang, over their business practice with third-party retailers and other participating businesses.

All e-commerce service providers, which run business by connecting third-party businesses with customers, including social media platforms that publish product information for commission, will come under tight watch.

The FTC will seek applying the revised law on not only the businesses based in Korea but also abroad, if the online platforms have local vendors listed on the website or app.

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Online platforms that acquire license of products or services to offer related services, such as Netflix, however, will not be subject to the revised law. Also, search engines that do not have contractual relationship on providing services between businesses and consumers will not be affected.

Although the FTC is yet to determine the revenue baseline for those coming under the subject of revised rules, the minimum level is expected to be drawn at 10 billion won ($8.5 million) with commission income at minimum 100 billion won. Also, the antitrust watchdog will seek to include those with a dominating market position, regardless of revenue, in its list for stricter watch.

Earlier this month, the FTC slapped a 1 billion won fine on Naver for abusing its dominance in the online real estate data market. It was found to have prevented local realtors from signing deals with its rival Kakao. The agency is also looking into Naver for exploiting its dominant position in online retail and video streaming service markets.

[ⓒ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]
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