[Exclusive] Ruling Party's Political Affairs and Science Committees Hold 2nd Policy Meeting Today to Finalize 'Onple Law' Deal

Dispute Over 'Regulatory Authority' Between Fair Trade Commission and Broadcasting Commission
2nd Policy Meeting of Ruling Party on Onple Act Held This Morning
No Conclusion at Policy Meeting on 19th...Aim to Reach Agreement That Day
Senior Deputy Chair Yoo Dongsu, Rep. Jeon Hyesuk and 6 Others Attended

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] Regarding the 'Online Platform Act,' which has escalated into a power struggle among government ministries, the Democratic Party Policy Committee will hold its second meeting today (26th) to coordinate and prepare an integrated party-level plan. This is to prevent unnecessary controversy from spreading and, above all, to ensure that the law does not become a 'redundant regulation.'

According to the National Assembly on the 26th, the meeting will be chaired by Yoo Dong-su, Senior Vice Chairman of the Democratic Party Policy Committee (member of the Political Affairs Committee), with attendees including Democratic Party lawmaker Jeon Hye-sook (member of the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee), Ahn Jeong-sang, Senior Specialist of the National Assembly, and Cha Ga-jin, Specialist. From the ministries, Shin Bong-sam, Secretary General of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, and Choi Sung-ho, Secretary General of the Korea Communications Commission, will participate.

The Online Platform Act is a bill aimed at preventing 'gapjil' (abuse of power) by domestic and foreign platform companies against their vendors and consumers, targeting platform companies such as Naver, Kakao, Baedal Minjok, Coupang, and Google.

The Fair Trade Commission's proposal (Act on the Fairness of Online Platform Intermediary Transactions), submitted to the National Assembly as a government bill on January 28, mandates the drafting of contracts between platform companies and vendors and imposes fines of up to 1 billion KRW for unfair practices by platform companies.

On the other hand, the bill proposed by lawmaker Jeon Hye-sook on December 11 last year, supported legislatively by the Korea Communications Commission (Act on the Fairness of Online Platform Intermediary Transactions), does not differ significantly in its overall framework from the Fair Trade Commission's proposal but differs in that it limits regulation to large-scale platform operators and encompasses user protection.

However, the Korea Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Communications Commission have clashed over 'which ministry should handle this,' leading to a turf war extending to their respective standing committees in the National Assembly, the Political Affairs Committee and the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee. The industry has raised concerns about overlapping and excessive regulations. Although the Democratic Party's Policy Committee held a meeting on the 19th, it only confirmed the differences in positions. A Democratic Party official said, "Since the conflicts that flared up between ministries have spread to the legislature, which is not a good situation, we will strive for reasonable coordination in the second meeting."

Meanwhile, unlike the meeting on the 19th, the Policy Committee decided that the floor leaders of the Political Affairs Committee and the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting Communications Committee (lawmakers Kim Byung-wook and Jo Seung-rae) will not attend. Yoo Dong-su, Senior Vice Chairman of the Policy Committee and a member of the Political Affairs Committee, will chair the meeting, and lawmaker Jeon, who is the bill's main proposer, is expected to lead the discussion.

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