South Korea's "Online Platform Fairness" sparked controversy in the industry

At a hearing on the "Law on Fairness of Online Platform Intermediary Transactions" held by the National Assembly Affairs Committee on the 22nd, Park Sung-ho, chairman of the Korea Internet Business Association, said, "In a fully competitive market, the efforts of companies that survived through fierce competition are being ignored, and a bill is being drafted with the framework of an A-B relationship as the direction."

Chairman Park pointed out : "Some of the data presented are hard to believe , and I hope to conduct an in-depth on-site investigation ."

It is understood that the main content of " Online Platform Fairness " is that if Naver , Google and delivery applications interfere with the settled companies, they will be fined twice the amount of the violation of the law to prevent platform companies from "making trouble".

Professor Jeon Seong-min of the Department of Business Administration at Gachon University said, “It is necessary to fully observe the ripple effects through economic analysis. If restrictions are made rashly, it may put everyone in trouble, so it is necessary to introduce restrictions with caution.”

Professor Jeon pointed out, "Among startups, there are many companies that have grown rapidly in a short period of time , so the transaction amount that was regulated by 100 billion won has also increased very quickly."

However, Kim Jae - shin, vice chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, said: “The types of damage to resident companies related to online platforms continue to exist, and it has become more serious in 2018-2020 . Nearly 30 online platforms have been selected as applicable, and the number of resident companies is expected to be 1.8 million. However, ignoring this market, it is difficult to establish a relationship transaction order for the first party.”

Vice Chairman Kim said , “The opinion of fully investigating the actual situation is to postpone the introduction of the bill. If the bill is enacted, there will be a one-year reprieve. According to the supplementary provisions, the actual situation in the field can be investigated first and the applicable objects and standards of the law can be established . ”

“The policies of some platforms can change overnight, and there is nothing small business owners can do about it,” said Chan Nanxiu, head of policy and public relations at the Federation of Small Businesses .

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