At the 40th Anniversary Ceremony of the Fair Trade Act, Cho Sung-wook Urges "Urgent Expansion of Fair Economy in the Digital Sector"

Jongwook Cho, Chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission. (File photo)

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Cho Sung-wook, Chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, emphasized on the 1st, "The most urgent task is to expand fair economy to the digital economy."

On this day, Chairman Cho made these remarks at the 'Fair Trade Day' commemorative ceremony held at the Korea Federation of SMEs located in Yeouido, Seoul.

Fair Trade Day was designated as a commemorative day on April 1, the enforcement date of the Fair Trade Act, by four private economic organizations including the Korea Federation of SMEs, the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Korea Fair Competition Federation, and the Korea Federation of Medium-sized Enterprises to promote voluntary compliance with the Fair Trade Act and the spread of a competitive culture. The ceremony has been held annually since 2002, making this year the twentieth. This year’s event was held on the 40th anniversary of the first enforcement of the Fair Trade Act in 1981.

At the event, Chairman Cho evaluated, "The past 40 years since the enactment and development of the Fair Trade Act have been a process of sowing the seeds of a fair economy in a barren environment and spreading it throughout our economy," adding, "Core concepts of market economy such as competition principles, win-win cooperation, and consumer sovereignty, which were unfamiliar 40 years ago, have firmly established themselves as operating principles of our economy."

He pointed out the establishment of a digital fair economy as a future task. Chairman Cho stated, "In the global digital environment, which has become an irreversible trend, we must strictly respond to anti-competitive behaviors by dominant market players who have preempted the market to enable new companies to enter and innovate," and added, "We need to supplement the system to address unfair practices and consumer rights violations arising from the power imbalance between large and small-medium enterprises, which are increasingly prominent in the online space."

To this end, the Fair Trade Commission proposed the enactment of the Act on the Fairness of Online Platform Intermediated Transactions on January 28 this year. The core of the Online Platform Act is to mandate the preparation and delivery of contracts between platform operators and tenant businesses to prevent disputes. The contract must include essential details such as service content, fees, commencement, restriction, suspension, and changes of services, product exposure, and criteria for sharing damages. Additionally, the Fair Trade Commission has announced a legislative amendment to the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, etc., requiring online platforms like Naver and Coupang to distinguish between intermediary transactions and direct purchases and to clearly indicate whether advertisements are advertisements to prevent consumers from mistaking ads for search results.

Meanwhile, at the commemorative ceremony, 27 individuals who contributed to the development of the fair trade system, win-win cooperation, and the spread of a culture of voluntary compliance received government awards such as orders and medals, including Lee Han-joo, representative lawyer of the law firm Chambon, who was awarded the Order of Civil Merit, Dongbaekjang.

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