Cho Seong-wook Targeting Coupang: "Large Business Groups Should Be Designated Without Discrimination Between Nationals and Foreigners"

Fair Trade Commission Chairman Cho Sung-wook is discussing consumer policy directions in the post-COVID-19 era at the 'Fair Trade Commission - Consumer Organizations Meeting' held on the 4th at the Fair Trade Mediation Agency conference room in Jung-gu, Seoul. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporters Haeyoung Kwon and Sangdon Joo] Cho Sung-wook, Chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), stated that "policies for large business groups should be effectively applied without discrimination between domestic and foreign nationals." The KFTC had previously promised to change the system after much deliberation over the issue of designating Kim Beom-seok, Chairman of Coupang's Board, as the same person (dong-il-in), emphasizing the need to resolve fairness issues between domestic and foreign nationals. If the system is changed before the designation of large business groups next year, the issue of designating Coupang's owner as the same person is expected to resurface.

At a press briefing held at the Government Complex Sejong on the 11th, Chairman Cho said, "In the case of Coupang, we judged that various problems could arise in the process of regulating by viewing a foreigner as the same person, and therefore thought that system improvement should come first." He added, "When creating the system, if a foreigner exercises substantial control in the future and meets the system requirements, we will not exclude the possibility of designating a foreigner as the same person."

This suggests the possibility that Chairman Kim Beom-seok could be designated as Coupang's same person as early as next year if the system is supplemented based on research projects. Currently, Coupang's same person is the Korean corporation. The KFTC explained at the end of last month that the reasons for not designating Chairman Kim as the owner were ▲there is no precedent for designating a foreign owner and ▲there are institutional limitations in regulating a foreign same person.

The KFTC plans to commission a research project as early as this month to define and set the requirements for the same person. Chairman Cho explained, "To explicitly define the same person, we will prepare improvement plans regarding the definition of the same person, specification of terms, criminal sanctions for foreigners, and the scope of relatives."

At this event, Chairman Cho also announced that the Corporate Group Division, known as the 'reaper of the business world,' has been elevated to a regular organization. He said, "It has received the momentum to carry out the mission of improving ownership and governance structures of large business groups and creating a fair competition environment," adding, "We will perform our original duties based on a stable law enforcement system."

The Corporate Group Division was launched as a temporary organization in September 2017 during the Moon Jae-in administration. It investigates private interests of owners and consists of the Corporate Group Policy Division, Holding Company Division, Disclosure Inspection Division, Internal Transaction Monitoring Division, and Unfair Support Monitoring Division.

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