The Fair Trade Commission will push for legislation to block unfair practices by giant monopoly platforms in a total of six service sectors, including search, social media (SNS), and video. It has also decided to prepare consumer protection measures based on the lifecycle, addressing areas like marriage preparation for the youth, culture, travel, and health for middle-aged individuals, and funeral services for the elderly.
On the 8th, the Fair Trade Commission announced its '2025 major business promotion plan.' The commission has set its business goal for this year as 'creating a fair transaction basis for economic recovery and future preparation.' To achieve this, it will implement four key initiatives: ▲boosting economic vitality for small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners ▲promoting innovative competition to prepare for the future ▲enhancing consumer protection and promoting rights ▲rational operation of the large enterprise group system.
First, the Fair Trade Commission will push for legislation to quickly block four anti-competitive practices—self-preference, tying, limiting multi-homing, and demanding the most favored nation clause—by giant monopoly platforms in six service areas: intermediaries, search, SNS, video, operating systems (OS), and advertising. It plans to inspect consumer deception by overseas online intermediary platforms and reform the electronic commerce law's sanction system to strengthen legal deterrence against violations.
The government plans to intensively check collusion in four key areas: health and safety, living necessities, construction and intermediate materials, and public procurement. It will also prepare measures to respond to new types of collusion, such as those utilizing artificial intelligence (AI). There are plans to conduct market analysis to improve the structure in areas like financial transaction services, where monopolies have become entrenched.
Policies for small and medium-sized enterprises and small business owners will be pursued. In particular, plans are in place to check unfair practices by franchise headquarters, such as passing on 'delivery and event expenses' and examining unfair practices toward agents in closely related fields like dairy products and tires. There are also plans to investigate unfair practices related to 'restaurant technology,' such as reservation and queue applications, and to refine consumer dispute resolution standards regarding 'no-shows.'
The focus will also be on consumer protection. Regarding marriage preparation for the youth, the plan includes expanding the availability of price information for 'Studio, Dress, and Makeup' (Sde) services and closely inspecting unfair practices associated with advertisements for childbirth and childcare products. It plans to review the situation in fields related to cultural content, travel, and health management for middle-aged individuals as well. For instance, it will monitor and oversee to prevent 'unfavorable changes to mileage and fare increases' following airline mergers, and check issues related to gyms. For the elderly, it will pursue institutional improvements to encourage responsible management and prevent insolvency of funeral service companies.
It will also increase the refund rate for new types of gift vouchers like 'Gifticons,' conduct investigations into the realities of 'AI washing' (claiming to use AI technology without actually using it or exaggerating its use in marketing and promotions), and work to prevent transaction-related damages in temporary venues like pop-up stores.
The system for large enterprise groups will also be organized. The current designation criteria for public disclosure-target enterprise groups, which is 'asset total of over 5 trillion won,' will be changed to a method linked to a certain percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as initially announced. Currently, non-profit organizations affiliated with large enterprise groups, whose executive governance companies meet independence management standards, are excluded from the large enterprise group designation, and the scope of these exclusions will be expanded. Currently, only the executive's 'controlling company prior to appointing an outside director' is considered, but the following criteria will also be included: ▲the newly established controlling company after appointing an outside director ▲non-profit organizations governed by outside directors ▲non-profit organizations' executives governing companies.
To enhance the discovery and investment in venture companies, the upper limit for the external investment ratio of Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) will be raised from 40% of the total investment amount to 50%, and foreign investments will also be expanded from 20% to 30%. If illegal activities are conducted to evade the regulations on large enterprise groups, measures for correction and criminal penalties will be enhanced to ensure that a penalty surcharge is imposed.
In addition, the Fair Trade Commission plans to strengthen the penalty surcharge provisions for habitual offenders, clarify the scope and criteria for disclosing resolutions, activate the compliance system for fair transactions, solidify rating assessments, and prepare institutional improvements for the collection, submission, and management of digital evidence, maintaining its admissibility.