[Reporter’s Notebook] The Sluggish FTC... How to Accelerate Review Speed

An agent from a certain company, who has been responsible for reviewing numerous corporate mergers, expressed dissatisfaction with the Fair Trade Commission’s (FTC) review speed. He said, “Major deals fall under the FTC’s prior notification system, so significant decisions like appointing executives can only be made after the FTC’s judgment is complete.” He added, “Usually, we prepare for about four months, but if the FTC continuously issues requests for additional documentation, the review period keeps getting extended, which is very frustrating from a corporate perspective.”

The FTC itself is also struggling. A FTC official stated, “Whether it’s corporate mergers or cases of unfair practices, the FTC investigates and analyzes the market competition restrictions it identifies, but companies rebut and prove otherwise, appeal, and go to litigation, often resulting in the market structure having completely changed since the investigation began.” He continued, “Therefore, despite various criticisms, at present, for cases, we have no choice but to utilize the consent decree system (a system where a business that violates the Fair Trade Act proposes self-remedial measures and corrective plans, and the FTC concludes the case without sanctions after gathering opinions) as a quick resolution method, even if it is insufficient.”

Experts on the Fair Trade Act also point out the issue of ‘speed.’ Especially in the platform economy, the authorities’ law enforcement speed cannot keep up with the rapidly changing market order, causing delays in problem resolution. One expert said, “You cannot regulate a company solely based on the fact that it did something ‘bad.’ The authorities must painstakingly prove how that wrongdoing affected society and whether the company falls under the regulatory scope, while the company rebuts.” He added, “The problem is that platform companies accumulate data quickly in one market and rapidly dominate it. Investigation periods delay problem-solving, and the companies that suffered the ‘bad acts’ often disappear from the market by then.”

Competition authorities worldwide agree on the need to ‘upgrade’ the new regulatory system. Korea’s FTC is also contemplating various measures. The market is changing too rapidly, and the current regulatory system cannot efficiently check the deepening monopoly situation. Although several options are being considered, the focus must be on ‘increasing speed.’ This includes introducing new standards to evaluate platform companies’ market dominance more quickly and legislating them, or devising new methods where the burden of proof in the regulatory process is partially shared between companies and authorities.

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