Assemblyman Park Sung-joong Proposes Bill to Ban 30% Increase in Google App Fees

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Jo] A bill prohibiting application market operators such as Google and Apple from arbitrarily imposing fees has been proposed in the National Assembly.

Park Seong-jung (Seocho-eul) of the United Future Party, who serves as the secretary of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee, announced on the 12th that he had jointly proposed an amendment to the "Telecommunications Business Act" the previous day, which stipulates that app market operators with monopolistic status cannot force specific payment methods.

According to the bill, it includes provisions defining as "prohibited acts" the imposition by app market operators of forced use of specific payment methods or unreasonable or discriminatory conditions or restrictions when mediating transactions of mobile content, etc.

This regulatory bill comes after Google announced "Billing Library v.3" in June, planning to allow only its own payment method (in-app payment) for digital content purchases from the second half of the year and impose a 30% fee on the payment amount. As of last year, Google Play Store and Apple App Store accounted for nearly 90% of the domestic app market.

Accordingly, if Google raises the Play Store fee by 30%, the fee alone would amount to a staggering 1.7998 trillion won, raising controversy that it would be a significant burden for both companies and consumers.

Park, who proposed the bill, stated the purpose of the bill, saying, "The Fair Trade Commission's investigation only reviews whether there is a possibility of abuse of market dominance, so direct sanctions through the Telecommunications Business Act are necessary." He added, "The so-called 'app toll' by Google and Apple is expected to cause considerable damage to the domestic mobile content industry," and "I will take the lead in protecting the domestic market so that this burden is not passed on to consumers."

Last month, during the government work report at the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee plenary session, Park also urged the government to prepare countermeasures, stating that Google's fee policy threatens the survival of domestic app developers and could expand to consumer damage.

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