Recent Enforcement of Cartel Regulations in Korea

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Joseph Hur, Paul Rhee, Sep 29, 2008

As a result of its rapid development during the last five to six years, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (“KFTC”) has been highly assessed and recognized by international antitrust practitioners. Its mission is to enforce the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (“MRFTA”). The KFTC was established at a relatively early stage of Korean economic growth (1980) as a competition law enforcement agency. Until recently, the KFTC had focused most of its resources on ex ante regulation of “chaebol” (i.e., large business groups) in addition to areas that involve unfair trade and subcontracting practices disputes between companies. However, starting in 2000 the KFTC has been successful in reforming the MRFTA and its practices.