From now on, official letters including purpose, duration, and method must be issued during Fair Trade Commission on-site investigations

Amendment to the Fair Trade Act Passed in the National Assembly Plenary Session

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Going forward, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) must provide an investigation notice containing the purpose, duration, and methods of the investigation during on-site inspections.

On the 30th, the FTC announced that the partial amendment to the "Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act," which revises procedural laws accordingly, passed the National Assembly plenary session the day before.

The amendment revises the provision that only requires the presentation of a badge indicating authority during on-site inspections, making it mandatory to issue an investigation notice during such inspections.

A new provision was also introduced for creating and returning custody records for voluntarily submitted items. The current provision, which only regulates temporary custody (seizure) authority, was amended to require investigation officers to prepare and issue custody records and to regulate the return of custody items, thereby strengthening the procedural rights of the investigated party.

Additionally, to strengthen the right to defense before case processing, the amendment explicitly grants the right to submit opinions and make statements during the investigation stage, and in principle allows access to and copying of materials, excluding trade secret documents, voluntary report materials, and other non-disclosed materials under relevant laws.

According to the amendment, investigation activities will be restricted after the commencement of the deliberation procedure. It prohibits investigation officers from conducting on-site inspections or hearing statements from parties during the deliberation stage after the submission of the review report, allowing investigations only in exceptional cases recognized as necessary by a plenary or small committee upon request.

The statute of limitations for disposition was also clarified. Under the current law, the statute of limitations is bifurcated: five years from the start of investigation if an investigation is initiated, and seven years from the end of the violation if no investigation is initiated, allowing a maximum of 12 years. The amendment unifies the statute of limitations for all other types of cases, except for unfair joint conduct cases that may require a long time for case recognition and processing, to seven years from the end of the violation.

Along with this, to strengthen the management of consent decisions, new authorities such as compliance inspections and data requests were introduced, and provisions were established to entrust compliance management tasks to the Fair Trade Mediation Agency and the Korea Consumer Agency, thereby introducing a consent decision compliance management system.

The amended law passed by the National Assembly will be promulgated after procedures such as presidential approval and will take effect one year after the date of promulgation.

An FTC official stated, "This amendment to the Fair Trade Act is significant in that it fundamentally strengthens due process throughout the FTC’s case handling process, establishing the foundation as a quasi-judicial body responsible for first-instance functions," and added, "We expect that the amendment will enhance transparency in case handling and increase public trust in the FTC’s work."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.