[2021 National Audit] Yoo Jeong-ju: "Webtoon Operators' Unfair Contracts Cross the Line... Virtually Slave Contracts"

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] At the National Assembly’s Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee’s audit of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism held on the 1st, allegations of power abuse by webtoon companies such as Naver Webtoon and Kakao Entertainment against creators came under scrutiny.

Yoo Jung-joo, a member of the Democratic Party, pointed out during the audit, "In 2018, the Fair Trade Commission reviewed the webtoon serialization contracts used by 26 webtoon service providers and requested corrections for 10 types of unfair terms disadvantageous to artists, but after three and a half years, there has been no change."

In fact, a contract between a certain company and a creator obtained by Rep. Yoo contained unfair clauses such as, "All intellectual property rights including copyright and trademark rights related to works and comics produced under the contract shall belong to or be transferred to the company, and the creator shall not exercise rights that cannot be assigned or transferred to the company by law."

Rep. Yoo stated, "There are not just one or two creators who have to sign such contracts. Probably, rookie artists have to sign under even harsher and more coercive conditions," describing it as virtually a "slave contract."

He also criticized, "It has been almost 20 years since Daum Webtoon (Kakao Webtoon) and Naver Webtoon emerged, but it is questionable when the market structure that monopolizes the market favoring only the giant distribution companies will change."

Minister Hwang Hee of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism responded to Rep. Yoo’s call for measures to eradicate unfair contracts by saying, "We will do so."

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