Ruling Party: "Google Gapjil Prevention Act Will Definitely Be Passed on the 20th"... Demands Opposition Party to Return

(From left) Jeong Pil-mo, Han Jun-ho, Jo Seung-rae, members of the Democratic Party of Korea Science, Technology, Information and Communication Committee.

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Eun-mo] The ruling party members of the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information and Communications Committee demanded the return of opposition party members to the committee to process the "Google Gapjil Prevention Act (Amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act)" aimed at blocking Google's unilateral commission policy changes.

On the afternoon of the 15th, ruling party members of the committee held a press conference, stating that the processing of the Google Gapjil Prevention Act can no longer be delayed, and urged opposition members who did not attend the agenda coordination committee that day to participate in the 3rd agenda coordination meeting scheduled for the 20th.

Originally, it was expected that the 2nd agenda coordination meeting held before the press conference would decide whether to submit the Google Gapjil Prevention Act to the plenary session. However, the agenda coordination committee decided to further review opinions from relevant ministries and conclude the matter at the 3rd agenda coordination meeting on the 20th, which is also the second agenda coordination meeting of the July extraordinary session.

On that day, Cho Seung-rae, chairman of the agenda coordination committee and a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, told the People Power Party members, "The agenda coordination committee has completed the second review of the amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act, which prohibits forced in-app payments," and demanded that they return to the committee on the 20th to participate in the schedule for processing the amendment banning forced in-app payments.

Google has decided to expand in-app payments, which were previously applied only to game apps, to all apps and content starting this October. From now on, a 30% commission will be charged on payment amounts for all content, including games, music, and webtoons. In-app payment refers to a method where app market operators like Google and Apple require paid apps and content to be purchased only through their internally developed payment systems.

Rep. Cho said, "To prevent such a situation in advance, during last year's national audit, lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties raised issues one after another regarding Google's policy to enforce in-app payments, and seven amendment bills containing legislative regulations were proposed. In particular, at the end of the national audit, the ruling and opposition party floor leaders agreed to create a compromise and process it, but it was canceled due to the sudden opposition from the opposition party," criticizing the opposition.

He added, "Since then, the committee has conducted three rounds of bill subcommittee reviews including plenary session review, public hearings, and hearing opinions from the Fair Trade Commission director in charge, and the agenda coordination committee has also conducted two reviews up to today. The agenda coordination committee listened to opinions from associations, groups, and related ministries such as the Korea Communications Commission, Fair Trade Commission, and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and based on these, concretely organized the bill's contents," opposing the opposition party's claim that further deliberation is needed.

Rep. Cho emphasized, "The contents of the bills submitted by both ruling and opposition parties are similar. The National Assembly must fulfill its duty to create a fair mobile ecosystem and protect content developers and consumers who are suffering from the tyranny of big tech companies."

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