KCCI Holds Seminar on Revised Fair Trade Act...Listening to Difficulties and Suggestions

Information Exchange Collusion Regulation Raises Concerns Over Punishment for Routine Information Sharing... "Set Reasonable Scope in Enforcement Decree"

[Asia Economy Reporter Yu Je-hoon] The Korea Employers Federation announced on the 7th that it held a "Revised Fair Trade Act Briefing Session" on the 5th at the Federation Hall in Mapo-gu, Seoul, inviting Sung Gyeong-je, Director of the Corporate Group Policy Division at the Korea Fair Trade Commission, for fair trade officers of member companies and major corporations.

This briefing session was organized to support companies' preparations for the revised "Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (Fair Trade Act)," which was amended last December and will be enforced in December this year, and to propose difficulties to the Fair Trade Commission.

In his opening remarks, Lee Dong-geun, Executive Vice Chairman of the Federation, said, "Although the business community repeatedly appealed the difficult situation of companies during the process of promoting the amendment of the law, it is regrettable that the opinions of the business community were not sufficiently reflected. However, now, with the enforcement of the revised Fair Trade Act approaching, it is time for companies to faithfully prepare according to the changed system." He added, "We request that the Fair Trade Commission actively reflect the difficulties and opinions of the corporate field in the subsequent amendment process of enforcement ordinances and detailed guidelines."

At the briefing session, Director Sung provided a detailed explanation of the fully revised Fair Trade Act, followed by a Q&A session with attendees. Participants expressed concerns that even routine information exchanges could be punished as collusion under the newly established information exchange cartel regulations in the revised law, and requested, "Please reasonably establish the scope of regulated information exchange during the amendment process of the enforcement ordinance to prevent unreasonable cartel punishments."

Additionally, they stated, "The scope of relatives under the Fair Trade Act also needs to be realistically adjusted to reflect social and managerial changes," and requested, "Considering the reality that it is nearly impossible to track the stock holdings of distant relatives with whom contact is difficult every year, it is necessary to significantly reduce the scope of relatives currently defined as relatives within the fourth degree of affinity and sixth degree of consanguinity in line with changing times."

Furthermore, regarding the significantly expanded scope of companies subject to internal transaction regulations (self-dealing regulations), opinions were also presented that supplementary legislation is needed to exclude so-called 'indirect shareholding companies,' where special related parties do not directly hold shares, from the regulatory scope.

Director Sung stated, "The revised Fair Trade Act includes provisions to suppress violations and eliminate regulatory blind spots, as well as to reduce the burden on companies and support innovation," and added, "We will expand communication with companies going forward."

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