IT Industry and Civic Groups "National Assembly Must Act on Google's Forced In-App Payment"

[Asia Economy Reporter Buaeri] The IT industry has urged the National Assembly to promptly pass the related legislation known as the 'Google Gapjil Prevention Act.'

Seventeen organizations, including the Korea Internet Corporations Association (KICA), issued a statement on the 18th saying, "We hope the National Assembly will finalize the review of the bill by reflecting the intent of the various proposed amendments through bipartisan agreement and make efforts to ensure the amendments pass the National Assembly swiftly." KICA includes companies such as Naver and Kakao.

The Korea Mobile Industry Association released the 'Survey Report on Corporate Status and Response Measures Following Changes in Google's Commission Policy' on the 16th at the request of the Ministry of Science and ICT.

According to the survey, due to Google's mandatory implementation of in-app payments, domestic app market commission revenue is expected to increase from a minimum of 88.5 billion KRW to a maximum of 156.8 billion KRW.

Last year, the total domestic mobile app sales amounted to 7.5215 trillion KRW, with sales through the Google app market estimated at 5.0047 trillion KRW (66.5%), Apple at 1.618 trillion KRW (21.5%), and One Store at 882.6 billion KRW (11.7%).

The total amount of commissions paid to app markets was 1.6358 trillion KRW, of which commissions paid to Google Play were 1.0529 trillion KRW (64.3%), Apple 443 billion KRW (27%), and One Store 139.1 billion KRW (8%), respectively.

Google announced that it will expand its 30% in-app payment and commission policy, previously applied only to games, to all content. This policy will take effect starting October.

Currently, seven amendments to the Telecommunications Business Act, which include provisions preventing app market operators with monopolistic status from forcing specific payment methods, have been submitted to the National Assembly. These were proposed by Democratic Party lawmakers Jo Seung-rae, Hong Jeong-min, Han Jun-ho; People Power Party lawmakers Park Seong-jung, Jo Myeong-hee, Heo Eun-ah; and independent lawmaker Yang Jeong-sook.

These organizations stated, "The problems caused by app market operators forcing payment methods and the resulting damage to the mobile content industry have been objectively confirmed," adding, "It is now time to make efforts to prevent such damage in advance."

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