"'Legal Tech' Industry Should Consider Consumer Welfare... Government's Role is Conflict Mediation"

Legal Tech and Digital Platform Project Forum Held
"Reducing Information Asymmetry... Improving Service Quality"
Need for Mediation of Platform Stakeholder Conflicts Mentioned
Ministry of Economy and Finance "Legislation of Service Industry Development Act Underway"

Group photo of participants at the discussion on 'Challenges for Innovation and Growth in the Digital Platform Industry'
Photo provided by the National Assembly 4th Industrial Revolution Forum

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bo-kyung] As the digital platform industry continues to grow in scale, voices have emerged calling for the government to determine the policy direction for legal tech with consumer welfare in mind. Rather than strengthening platform regulations, there are opinions that the focus should be on mediating conflicts with stakeholders, such as the 'Rotok incident.'

Recently, a forum titled "Challenges for Innovation and Growth of the Digital Platform Industry" was held by the bipartisan parliamentary group '4th Industrial Revolution Forum.' Government officials and private experts gathered to assess the growth speed and scale of the digital platform market and discuss policy directions centered on legal tech.

Professor Park Min-su of Sungkyunkwan University, who presented at the event, revealed that last year, the domestic O2O (Online to Offline) service business market size reached 5.4323 trillion KRW, growing 54.6% compared to the previous year. Professor Park evaluated, "The advancement of digital technology has become a driving force to increase productivity in existing industries," adding, "As competition is promoted, information asymmetry has been alleviated, and the quality of products and services has improved."

He emphasized, "The government should play a role in improving the legal system to ease institutional and financial barriers for innovation by existing companies and startup entry, along with mediating conflicts with stakeholders."

According to market research firm Statista, the legal tech industry is expected to grow globally at an average annual rate of 6%, reaching a scale of 25.17 billion USD by 2025.

Professor Park stated, "Legal service intermediary platforms reduce economic costs by digitalizing offline transactions," and added, "Consumers can more easily meet the lawyers they want, and through transparency of information, they can enjoy improved service quality and price reductions."

Regarding the government's role, he said, "It is necessary to induce intermediary platforms to increase consumer usage by improving service quality and to mediate conflicts with existing stakeholders for this purpose."

He also suggested focusing on minimizing potential harms arising from platform growth, such as ▲decline in public interest and service quality due to excessive price competition ▲capital dependency in the legal market ▲market concentration of intermediary platforms and anti-competitive behavior.

Photos from the discussion forum on 'Challenges for Innovation and Growth in the Digital Platform Industry'
Photo by National Assembly 4th Industrial Revolution Forum

Park Yu-ri, head of the Platform Policy Research Center at the Korea Information Society Development Institute, also emphasized that "platformization is a trend of the times," and that the market should move toward increasing transparency and reducing information asymmetry.

Director Park stated, "Rather than regulations that ban specific platforms, reasonable regulations that can address concerns should be established," adding, "Companies and industry associations must collaborate to strengthen the positive functions and transparency of platforms."

Gu Tae-eon, chairman of the Legal Tech Industry Council at the Korea Startup Forum, said during the discussion, "More than 30 domestic companies are launching new services such as Rotok, Ropom, Modusign, and HelpMe," and added, "To nurture legal tech companies that can compete with global big tech firms, the government and legal professional organizations must cooperate promptly."

In this regard, Moon Kyung-ho, director of the Service Economy Division at the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, mentioned the need to enact the Service Industry Development Basic Act (Seobalbeop), saying, "The government's stance on platforms emerging in the professional service sector varies." Director Moon stated that the government is promoting legislation of Seobalbeop to ensure consistent policy implementation and lead the creation of new industry models.

Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, also gave a congratulatory speech that day, saying, "The keywords recently emphasized by President Yoon Seok-yeol are deregulation and regulatory reform," and pledged, "We will strive at the party level to ensure that no unreasonable restrictions occur due to regulations."

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