Fair Trade Commission Chairman: "Establish Fair Competition in Semiconductors, OS, and App Markets"

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunju Lee] “We will prioritize policies to enhance competitive pressure in the infrastructure sector within the digital economy.”

On the 22nd, Han Ki-jung, Chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), stated this regarding the policy direction of the Fair Trade Commission for the coming year at a year-end press briefing held at the KFTC. This indicated a determination to curb global big tech platform companies that seek to exclude domestic competitors.

Chairman Han identified the semiconductor, OS, and app market sectors as markets where fair competition must be established. He said, “Just as there are infrastructure industries that form the foundation in the traditional economy, there are infrastructure industries that enable the digital economy. In terms of hardware, semiconductors correspond to this, and in terms of software, the OS fits here.” He added, “Next year, we plan to conduct a fact-finding survey on the semiconductor industry's value chain and related upstream and downstream industries to examine factors restricting competition.”

He noted, “In the semiconductor industry, global big tech companies have continuously attempted to exclude competing businesses,” citing past cases such as Intel and Qualcomm’s ‘loyalty rebate provision’ and Qualcomm’s 2016 refusal to license standard essential patents. He also said, “The KFTC is currently conducting a consent decree procedure regarding global semiconductor manufacturers’ acts of forcing long-term contracts in the smart device sector.” This referred to the case of Broadcom, a U.S. semiconductor company accused of demanding long-term contracts while selling smart device components to Samsung Electronics.

He also mentioned global big tech companies Google and Apple, which have had conflicts with domestic app developers. He said, “Previously, the KFTC sanctioned Google for obstructing the launch of competing OSs in the OS sector, and we are carefully monitoring areas such as the app market. The case where Google obstructed competitive app market transactions by game companies will soon enter the review process.”

Regarding the recent process in which the KFTC reported Kim Beom-su, head of Kakao’s Future Initiative Center, and his personal company K Cube Holdings to the prosecution for violating the ‘separation of financial and industrial capital’ regulation, Chairman Han also explained why Kim was not included as a target of the report. He said, “There were criticisms that measures against the same individual, Kim Beom-su, were insufficient, but there were also opposing views that the measures were excessive. From the KFTC’s standpoint, since the corporation K Cube Holdings exercised voting rights and Kim Beom-su was not the CEO, it was difficult to file a report solely based on the circumstance that he owned 100% of the shares.”

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