Fair Trade Commission Expands 'In-App Payment Investigation Team' Within ICT Task Force... Establishes 'Digital Advertising Division'

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced on the 7th that it will establish a digital advertising division within the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) task force and expand the in-app payment investigation team within the existing app market division.

First, the KFTC added a digital advertising division to the existing four divisions (app market, O2O platform, semiconductor, intellectual property rights) within the ICT task force.

A KFTC official explained, "This is to strengthen the response to unfair trade practices related to the expansion of influence by major platforms in the personalized advertising market based on data superiority," adding, "Acts such as forcing the use of unnecessary services while providing advertising platform services, and obstructing transactions with competitors, which hinder competition in the digital advertising market, are the main focus of monitoring."

The KFTC also plans to investigate deceptive collection, linkage, and combination of user data for use in personalized advertising.

Additionally, the commission will conduct research to understand the domestic market structure and transaction status of the digital advertising market and analyze competition restrictions and unfair issues. It will also analyze case handling and market status reports on major digital advertising operators by foreign competition authorities such as those in the United States and the European Union (EU).

Alongside this, the KFTC will expand the in-app payment investigation team within the existing app market division to respond to major issues in the app market.

The investigation team plans to comprehensively review the impact of mandatory in-app payments on the app market and related payment system markets, as well as the welfare effects on app developers and consumers.

During the investigation process, the team will listen to opinions from app developers and experts and analyze investigations and litigation related to in-app payments by foreign competition authorities.

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