Kim Hyung-bae, New Head of the Korea Arbitration Board, "Will Analyze Outcomes of Arbitration Period Reduction and Consent Decision System"

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] On the 24th, Kim Hyung-bae, the newly appointed head of the Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency, stated as his inaugural message that he would shorten the dispute mediation period and analyze cases of consent orders where businesses propose their own solutions after mergers to ensure proper compliance.

Kim said in a phone interview with Asia Economy, "Dispute mediation through the Mediation Agency can save time and costs compared to case handling through the Fair Trade Commission," adding, "Since time is money, we will review the entire mediation process and further shorten the average mediation period of 49 days last year."

Last year, the Mediation Agency received 3,008 dispute mediation applications and processed 2,972 cases. Among the ongoing mediation cases, 1,308 cases, accounting for 76%, were successfully mediated. Including saved litigation costs, the amount of damage relief through mediation reached 120.7 billion KRW.

Following the amendment of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, the Mediation Agency plans to analyze existing cases to manage the implementation of consent orders it performs starting this year. He emphasized, "Since consent orders impose corrective measures equivalent to sanctions, implementation management to check compliance and the effectiveness of corrective actions is of utmost importance." He added, "In the case of mergers, structural measures such as the sale of specific businesses are imposed, and we plan to examine whether the Fair Trade Commission's judgment on future market changes, which formed the basis of such decisions, was appropriate."

Starting this year, the Mediation Agency will additionally take on the management of consent order implementation and the Franchise Comprehensive Support Center. If the 'Act on the Fairness of Online Platform Intermediary Transactions' is enacted in the future, it will also have to establish and operate a dispute mediation council. He said, "We are planning to reorganize the Mediation Agency into the Fair Trade Promotion Agency, and changing the name is significant," adding, "In addition to the existing core task of 'mediation,' we plan to strengthen efforts to provide education to companies to prevent unfair practices in advance and to promote the introduction of the Compliance Program (CP) for fair trade."

Kim previously served as spokesperson for the Fair Trade Commission, director of the Market Surveillance Bureau, policy officer for Market Structure Improvement, director of the Cartel Investigation Bureau, and standing commissioner.

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