South Korean government reviews Online Platform Fairness Act

It is reported that the South Korean government reviewed the Online Platform Fairness Act on the 16th based on the government proposal submitted by the Fair Trade Commission .

After the Fair Trade Commission proposed a bill on online platform transactions, similar restrictions were introduced in Congress one after another . Democratic congressmen submitted a bill on protecting online platform users, which involves not only online platforms and settled companies, but also consumers.

According to a secretary of the Government Affairs Committee, the party and government held a consultation meeting on the morning of the 16th, at which it was confirmed that the online platform-related restrictions proposed by the Fair Trade Commission were the government's only proposal.

As the importance and influence of online platforms continue to grow, there is a growing awareness of the need to regulate various unfair behaviors (Quality A) of resident businesses and consumers , coupled with the creation of "entry barriers" by monopoly platforms, making operations more difficult.

The bill proposed by the Fair Trade Commission is aimed at fair transactions between online platforms and resident companies, including a fine of up to 1 billion won if Class A unfair practices are committed against resident companies .

In addition, there are concerns about excessive regulation in the recently proposed bills. The most representative provision is that if platform companies do not prevent illegal behavior of resident companies, they will be held accountable, which does not take into account the reality that platform companies find it difficult to manage many resident companies.

The platform industry argues that since a variety of business models can emerge, they cannot be uniformly regulated like the existing manufacturing industry. However, the phenomenon of giving private services an advantage over other operators and imposing the lowest price compensation on their own platforms is widely exposed among platform companies.

Platform companies should disclose the standards for determining handling fees, inform the order in which products are exposed, and based on this, allow companies and consumers to choose which platform to use.

It is learnt that after consultations between the party and the government , the party will now consult among itself to work out a satisfactory plan.

South Korea

Online Platform

consumer