'Fair Trade Commission and Broadcasting Commission Conflict' Onple Act, Outline Next Week... Private Party-Government Discussion

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Seon-hee] The direction for handling the 'Online Platform Regulation Related Bill (Onple Law),' which the Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Communications Commission have been competing over for about a year, is expected to be finalized next week.

According to political circles on the 31st, the government and the ruling party will hold a closed-door party-government meeting at the National Assembly next week to discuss the handling direction of the online platform regulation-related bill.

It is reported that the likely plan is to pass the Fair Trade Commission's 'Online Platform Fairness Act Draft' pending at the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee and the Korea Communications Commission's draft (proposed by Jeon Hye-sook, a member of the Democratic Party) under review by the Science, Technology, Information and Broadcasting and Communications Committee, respectively, while adjusting overlapping regulatory provisions in each bill.

General regulations on platforms would be handled by the Fair Trade Commission, and areas requiring special characteristics, such as broadcasting and communications, would be handled by the Korea Communications Commission.

With the increase in non-face-to-face transactions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, platform companies such as Naver and Kakao have expanded their business areas in an 'octopus-like' manner, raising concerns that they may engage in unfair practices such as imposing excessive sales commissions on small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners based on their superior bargaining position. Accordingly, many bills have been proposed to regulate unfair practices by these platform companies, but the bills have been stalled for a long time as related agencies such as the Fair Trade Commission and the Korea Communications Commission have each claimed jurisdiction.

The bill submitted by the Fair Trade Commission in January centers on requiring platform companies to provide platform brokerage transaction contracts to tenant companies, including matters related to the contract period, changes, and termination of brokerage transactions. Companies with sales of 10 billion KRW or brokerage transaction amounts of 100 billion KRW or more are subject to regulation.

Earlier, the 'Online Platform User Protection Act' proposed by Representative Jeon Hye-sook designates the Korea Communications Commission as the main agency. It regulates not only the relationship between platforms and tenant companies but also with consumers, distinguishing the subjects of the law into general 'online platform operators' and 'large-scale online platform operators,' imposing differentiated obligations.

Meanwhile, the Fair Trade Commission emphasized again the urgent need for legislation, stating that the Onple Law is a livelihood bill for 1.8 million small-scale platform tenant companies. On the 27th, Chairman Cho Sung-wook said, "If time is delayed, the difficulties and disappointment of small merchants will be great," adding, "Since lawmakers felt the difficulties of tenant companies during the recent audit, it seems the legislation will be expedited."

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