Recent Developments in Korean Competition Law Enforcement

Sep 03, 2015

CPI Asia Column edited by Vanessa Yanhua Zhang (Global Economics Group) present:

Recent Developments in Korean Competition Law Enforcement – Youngjin Jung & Gina JeeHyun Choi¹ (Kim & Chang, Seoul)

Introduction

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (“KFTC”) has gained attention as one of the most active competition authorities in the world. It has enjoyed a reputation of closely following global enforcement trends of more developed competition authorities, such as the relevant authorities of the United States and European Union. Yet despite these developments, there remain many challenges for the KFTC.² There is also ongoing dialogue regarding the KFTC’s deviation from the core mission of competition agencies by placing emphasis on issues that are unrelated to promoting competition. Such activities are, in part, due to the  KFTC’s a broader mandate under the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (“FTL”, the primary competition law in Korea) than that of other competition regimes. For instance, the FTL includes a Chapter aimed to address issues associated with economic concentrations in the Korean economy that have plagued Korea for many years. Moreover, because the KFTC is positioned as more than an enforcement agency, the focus of the KFTC enforcement has been viewed as not necessarily consistent with the putative mandate of other competition agencies.

In this paper, the authors do not touch upon these broader issues under the Korean co