Trade Associations Including Junggi Central Association Request "Online Platform Regulation" to Fair Trade Commission

Fair Trade Commission to Hold Meeting with Industry Groups on the 20th Regarding the Enactment of the Online Platform Fairness Act

Jongwook Cho, Chairman of the Fair Trade Commission. / Photo by Honam Moon munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Chaeseok] Industry associations including the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business (KSMB) demanded at a meeting with the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) that online platform operators be imposed with obligations and responsibilities equivalent to those of offline operators.

The KFTC's Online Platform Fairness Act Promotion Task Force held a comprehensive meeting with tenant companies for the enactment of the law on the 20th from 2 p.m.

The meeting was attended by the KSMB, Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise, Korea Foodservice Industry Association, Korea Franchise Industry Association, National Taxi Transport Business Association Federation, National Substitute Driver Association, and Korea Hotel Association.

Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), non-face-to-face transactions have surged, increasing dependence on online platform transactions.

According to Statistics Korea, the transaction amount of online shopping malls increased from 25.2 trillion won in 2010 to 54.1 trillion won in 2015, and 135.3 trillion won last year. Including this year's figures, which saw a surge in non-face-to-face transactions, the scale is expected to grow even larger.

Industry associations conveyed to the KFTC that online operators do not bear responsibilities equivalent to offline operators.

The industry associations requested ▲ that online platform operators engaged in intermediary transactions be assigned responsibilities and obligations at the level of the Large-scale Distribution Business Act (KSMB), ▲ the enactment of the Online Platform Fairness Act (Korea Federation of Micro Enterprise), ▲ the establishment of regulations regarding appropriate commission calculation standards and disclosure of commission imposition details (Korea Foodservice Industry Association), and ▲ that delivery apps share customer-related data with self-employed business owners and franchise headquarters (Korea Franchise Industry Association).

The KFTC also agreed with this. It judged that the dominant position of online platforms is strengthening and concerns about unfair acts against tenant companies are increasing. It acknowledged that there are limitations in responding with existing policy measures.

Therefore, it said it has no choice but to promote the enactment of the "Act on the Fairness of Online Platform Intermediary Transactions" (tentative name). It stated that this is inevitable to realize the principle of enhancing transparency and fairness in the transaction relationship between platforms and tenant companies.

According to the KFTC, the Large-scale Distribution Business Act does not apply to online platform intermediary operators. The Fair Trade Act also lacks provisions requiring contract provision, standard contracts, and other basis regulations for dispute prevention and improvement of transaction practices.

Since the 31st of last month, the KFTC has held five meetings with tenant companies by industry, including open markets, delivery apps, app markets, accommodation apps, and others.

Lee Dongwon, Director General of Market Surveillance at the KFTC, said, "We plan to hold meetings with platform operators for about two more weeks and collect opinions from academia and other experts to promptly advance the law enactment process."

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