Fair Trade Commission "Accelerating Preparation of Platform Monopoly Review Guidelines... Industry Feedback Collected"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Sejong=Reporter Dongwoo Lee] As service recovery is underway following the Kakao system failure, the Fair Trade Commission is accelerating efforts to establish regulatory measures addressing the monopolistic structure of the IT (Information Technology) platform market. This is because criticism has emerged that the damage was exacerbated due to Kakao's monopoly, strengthening calls for a systematic review of measures to prevent abuse of monopoly power on online platforms.

According to related government departments on the 18th, the Fair Trade Commission recently completed gathering industry opinions for the establishment of review guidelines and subordinate regulations concerning the abuse of market dominance by online platform operators. Based on this, the Commission plans to finalize the detailed review guidelines through a plenary meeting by the end of this year.

The review guidelines are expected to include provisions to limit the excessive comprehensive operations of online platform companies. A Fair Trade Commission official explained, "We plan to prepare specific regulatory guidelines to sanction acts that abuse dominant positions, such as discriminating against competing businesses disadvantageously or excluding them from the market."

Specifically, the Fair Trade Commission submitted a review report containing sanction opinions to the Commission regarding Kakao Mobility (Kakao T)'s practice of funneling calls to affiliated taxis, and is investigating Kakao Entertainment's unfair acquisition of copyrights for web novel contest submissions.

The government also holds the position that regulations on monopolies in online platforms must be actively examined. President Yoon Suk-yeol stated the day before, "The state must respond institutionally to market distortions caused by monopolies in the private sector."

Alongside this, the government is reportedly considering designating private data centers (IDCs) as national disaster management facilities alongside broadcasting and communication infrastructure.

Previously, in 2020, the government attempted to include private data centers in the 'Basic Plan for National Disaster Management Facilities' under the Broadcasting and Communications Development Basic Act to prevent data loss and leakage, but the proposal was halted amid criticism of excessive regulation.

Given that this incident escalated damages across all Kakao platforms due to a data center fire, opinions are growing that private data centers should be included as national disaster management facilities.

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