MAN Truck & Bus Korea and 7 Others Granted Personal Location Information Business Licenses

The Korea Communications Commission Holds the 25th Committee Meeting

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] The Korea Communications Commission announced on the 23rd that it has approved eight companies, including MAN Truck & Bus Korea Co., Ltd. and Jaewon CNC Co., Ltd., as personal location information service providers.

The KCC held its 25th committee meeting and decided this after reviewing applications for personal location information service provider licenses submitted between the 2nd and 4th of this month.

The approved companies are MAN Truck & Bus Korea Co., Ltd., Jaewon CNC Co., Ltd., Unique Co., Ltd., TYM ICT Co., Ltd., BTCCQ Co., Ltd., Nano IT Co., Ltd., HDS Co., Ltd., and GSIL Co., Ltd.

As a result of the evaluation, these eight companies, including MAN Truck & Bus Korea Co., Ltd., received a total score of 70 or higher and a score of 60 or higher in each evaluation category, qualifying them as eligible.

However, the KCC attached conditions to the approval, including compliance with laws protecting location information and promoting fair competition and user rights, as well as the obligation to notify and obtain consent from users regarding the collection, use, and provision of their location information when providing location-based services.

Following Naver's designation as a mutual investment-restricted business group with total assets exceeding 10 trillion won, the KCC issued administrative orders requiring Naver to reduce its media company shareholding ratios to not exceed 10%. Naver's shareholding ratios are 19.92% in JTBC Mediacom Co., Ltd., 19.80% in Media Rep A Co., Ltd., and 19.54% in TV Chosun Media Rep Co., Ltd.

The committee also approved the enactment of the "Detailed Standards for Continuous Programming, etc." This establishes standards to integrate the advertising and mid-roll advertising time and frequency between segments when essentially the same program is split and broadcast continuously.

The committee approved amendments to the "Broadcast Program Scheduling Notice," relaxing the upper limit on the programming ratio of imported films, animations, and popular music from a single country from "80% or less" to "90% or less." The amendments will take effect on January 1, 2022, coinciding with the enforcement date of the "Broadcasting Act Enforcement Decree."

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