Apple App Store, 5 Years of Inadequate User Protection... Kakao Also Under Scrutiny

KCC 2022 Telecommunications Service Providers
User Protection Performance Evaluation Results Released
SKT, HCN, LGU+ Rated 'Excellent'
Enex Telecom, Apple, Meta Rated 'Insufficient'

Apple, which operates the global application (app) market 'App Store,' has received a 'Poor' rating for five consecutive years in the user protection evaluation conducted by the Korea Communications Commission as of this year. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Cha Min-young] Apple, which operates the global application (app) market 'App Store,' has received a 'Poor' rating for five consecutive years in the user protection evaluation conducted by the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) through this year. Google, which operates the search portal, Google Play Store, and YouTube, also regressed by one grade compared to the previous year. Kakao, which recently caused nationwide damage due to the 'Kakao outage incident,' remained at a 'Fair' or lower rating for three consecutive years and was criticized.

The KCC announced on the 16th that it held a plenary meeting and deliberated and resolved the '2022 Evaluation Results on User Protection Work of Telecommunications Service Providers.'

This year's evaluation targets included a total of 42 companies across 12 fields of fixed-line and value-added telecommunications services. Kakao Mobility and Danggeun Market were newly included in this year's evaluation targets, but the pilot evaluation results were not disclosed.

While the grades of fixed-line telecommunications service providers generally improved compared to the previous year, most value-added telecommunications service providers, except for some, showed a decline or similar levels compared to the previous year.

The user protection work evaluation grades are divided into five categories: ▲Excellent (950 points or above) ▲Very Good (900?950 points) ▲Good (850?900 points) ▲Fair (800?850 points) ▲Poor (below 800 points).

Those who received an Excellent rating include SK Telecom (mobile phone), HCN (high-speed internet), LG Uplus (high-speed internet), SK Broadband, SK Telecom (high-speed internet), SK Telink, and Korea Cable Telecom, totaling seven companies. This is an increase from zero companies the previous year.

Those who received a Very Good rating include KT (mobile phone), LG Uplus (mobile phone), KT (high-speed internet), LG HelloVision (high-speed internet), D'Live, KT M Mobile, LG HelloVision (MVNO), Samsung Electronics, and Naver, totaling nine companies, down from 13 companies the previous year.

Those who received a Good rating include CMB, MediaLog, Google (value-added app market), One Store, Google (value-added search), and Google (YouTube) (value-added OTT), totaling six companies, down from nine companies the previous year. Notably, Google and One Store are among those whose grades declined compared to the previous year.

Those who received a Fair rating include Kakao (Daum) (value-added search) and Kakao (KakaoTalk) (value-added SNS), totaling two companies, down by one from three companies the previous year.

Those who received a Poor rating include Enex Telecom, Apple (value-added app market), and Meta Platforms (Facebook) (value-added SNS), totaling three companies, the same number as the previous year.

Standing commissioners criticized the insufficient user protection efforts of overseas operators. KCC Standing Commissioner Kim Hyo-jae said, "The poor results of overseas operators like Apple (App Store) and Meta indicate their lack of interest in protecting domestic users." Commissioner Kim Hyun also said, "Apple has received a Poor rating for five consecutive years, so improvement is necessary," adding, "Operators need to enhance their awareness of user protection and efforts to promote user rights."

Kakao was also under scrutiny. Commissioner Kim Hyun said, "When a service failure occurs in a large-scale operator, the damage directly affects the public," urging, "There were reportedly 100,000 complaints received over 19 days; please make reasonable efforts to remedy user damages." Commissioner Kim Chang-ryong added, "Looking at Kakao-affiliated services, Kakao received a Good rating only once in 2019 and has remained at Fair or below without improvement," stating, "Being Fair for three consecutive years essentially means a very low level. There is a possibility of causing major inconvenience or leading to a large-scale accident in the future."

The KCC plans to improve the evaluation system by expanding the evaluation targets for value-added telecommunications services, strengthening services for information-vulnerable groups, improving notification of service suspension in telecommunications services, enhancing the operation of user damage prevention systems, and revising evaluation criteria to induce practical user protection. It will also expand explanatory sessions and expert consulting to improve the understanding of evaluation targets and activate the operator self-diagnosis system. Furthermore, detailed evaluation results will be notified to each operator to encourage self-improvement of deficiencies.

KCC Chairman Han Sang-hyuk stated, "The KCC will ensure that the user protection work evaluation does not end with just evaluation but recognizes the importance of user protection and induces voluntary competition among telecommunications operators for user protection, establishing a virtuous cycle system for user protection."

Meanwhile, the KCC also approved the re-licensing business plan changes for SBS M&C's broadcast advertising sales agency business on the same day. The re-licensing condition includes changing from a minimum support ratio method supporting regional and small broadcasters to a fixed-rate revenue-sharing support method.

For 16 broadcasters who improperly used viewer information through insurance consultation broadcast programs to benefit corporate insurance agencies, the KCC issued viewing suspension orders for violating the Broadcasting Act's prohibited acts and imposed a total fine of 103.1 million KRW. This included 10 regional private broadcasters such as TBC, five economic specialty channels (PP) including SBS Medianet, and comprehensive programming channel user Channel A.

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