The Broadcasting, Media and Communications Commission (BMCC) drew up a plan to impose penalty surcharges of around 40 billion won on Google and around 20 billion won on Apple for forcing in-app payments, but it has failed to levy them for a second year.
According to the "fact-finding data on Google and Apple's forced in-app payments" submitted by the Broadcasting, Media and Communications Commission to Rep. Choi Su-jin of the People Power Party, a member of the Science. ICT. Broadcasting. and Communications Committee of the National Assembly, on the 10th, the commission's predecessor, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), determined that Google and Apple violated the Telecommunications Business Act and notified them of a corrective action plan in Oct. 2023.
Article 50 of the Telecommunications Business Act stipulates that app market operators must not unfairly use their transactional position to force specific payment methods on providers of mobile content, nor unjustifiably delay the review of mobile content.
The KCC judged that Google and Apple collected excessive fees in a discriminatory manner by including value-added taxes only for domestic developers, allowed only their own in-app payment method or third-party payment methods with unreasonable conditions attached, and did not set specific review periods or notify specific reasons for review delays, actions that fall under the prohibited conduct in the relevant provision.
Accordingly, the KCC at the time planned to impose penalty surcharges totaling a little over 68 billion won, including 47.5 billion won on Google and 20.5 billion won on Apple. However, it was found that around March this year, through a recalculation of sales, the KCC prepared a deliberation amendment that slightly adjusted the penalty surcharge amounts to 42 billion won for Google and 21 billion won for Apple.
However, the KCC has so far been unable to impose the penalty surcharges on Google and Apple. Former Korea Communications Commission Chair Lee Jin-sook was impeached at the initiative of the Democratic Party of Korea immediately after taking office in July last year, which suspended her duties and left the KCC in a "one-person system" with only one Commissioner. Although she returned to work after the impeachment was dismissed, even under a "two-person system," deliberation and resolution on the agenda did not take place due to claims that the KCC's deliberations and resolutions were improper, followed by the reorganization into the BMCC, Rep. Choi argued.
Rep. Choi said, "Because the KCC has not carried out deliberation and resolution, real institutional improvements have not been made," and added, "It is necessary to impose penalty surcharges to address Google and Apple's excessive fees and monopolistic positions, reduce the burden on developers, and minimize harm to the public."