Naver Knowledge iN 'Expert' Reported to Prosecutors for Violating Attorney Act

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Legal professionals have filed a complaint with the prosecution against Naver, the largest domestic portal, on charges of violating the Attorney-at-Law Act by mediating paid legal consultations online through the 'Knowledge Expert' service and collecting commissions as compensation.

On the 22nd at 1 p.m., the Korea Legal Professionals Association held a press conference in front of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, stating, "Naver's Expert service violated the Attorney-at-Law Act, which prohibits the introduction and mediation of lawyers, thereby infringing on lawyers' independence," and announced that they are filing charges against Naver Corporation, CEO Han Seong-suk, and the personnel in charge of the Expert service.

Naver designated legal services as one of the target fields in providing the Expert service to users. Expert is a platform service where users consult one-on-one with experts and pay service fees. In the case of legal experts, users have one-on-one legal consultations with lawyers, and Naver deducts a 5.5% commission from the amount paid by the user and pays the remainder to the lawyer.

The association judged this as "compensation for the introduction and mediation of lawyers," which is prohibited under Article 34 of the Attorney-at-Law Act.

The association argued, "Some legal platforms have chosen the indirect route of collecting advertising fees to avoid controversy over violating the Attorney-at-Law Act, but Naver Expert directly performed the introduction act," adding, "In the case of advertising, lawyers can simply change the advertising service provider to escape subordination, but in the case of platforms introducing cases, lawyers cannot avoid subordination to mainstream legal platforms."

They continued, "The domination of the industry by legal platforms ultimately causes an increase in costs, and all the burdens fall on the users, which is by no means desirable for the public."

Meanwhile, regarding this complaint, Naver rebutted that it does not receive brokerage fees for lawyer engagements but only deducts a 'payment agency fee,' and therefore it is not a case of receiving money or other benefits as compensation for introducing or mediating lawyers.

They also added that since they do not know which lawyer the user applies to consult with or the content of the consultation, it is difficult to consider it as introduction, mediation, or inducement prohibited by Article 34 of the Attorney-at-Law Act.

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