User Protection, SKT and LGU+ Rated 'Very Excellent'... Will Netflix Be Included?

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] Among mobile carriers, SK Telecom and LG Uplus were found to have 'Excellent' user protection operations in the mobile phone sector. KT received an 'Outstanding' rating. Among portals, Naver was rated 'Outstanding', Google 'Good', and Daum, YouTube, and KakaoTalk received 'Average'. The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) officially designated 'Netflix', which is rapidly increasing its subscribers, as a subject to be evaluated.

According to the industry on the 25th, the KCC held a plenary meeting the day before and deliberated and approved the results of the '2020 Telecommunications Service Providers User Protection Operations Evaluation'. Under the Telecommunications Business Act, the KCC annually evaluates telecommunications service providers' user protection operations to prevent user damages. The evaluation committee, composed of academia, consumer groups, and others, reviews a total of 28 companies across five sectors: mobile phones, high-speed internet, MVNOs, value-added telecommunications general services, and value-added telecommunications app markets. Excluding overlaps, there are 21 companies in total.

Companies that received the 'Excellent' grade in this year's evaluation include △SK Telecom and LG Uplus in the mobile phone sector △SK Broadband, SK Telecom, LG Uplus, and KT in the high-speed internet sector. SK Broadband received the highest score in the high-speed internet sector.

Companies rated 'Outstanding' include △KT in mobile phones △D'Live, LG HelloVision, Hyundai HCN in high-speed internet △Korea Cable Telecom in MVNO △Naver in value-added telecommunications. Companies with 'Outstanding' or higher ratings are eligible for a reduction of more than 30% in fines when sanctions are imposed in the future. Companies rated 'Good' include △CMB in high-speed internet △S1, SK Telink, LG HelloVision, KTM Mobile in MVNO △Google in value-added telecommunications △Google Play Store in value-added telecommunications app markets.

In the value-added telecommunications sector, Daum, YouTube, and KakaoTalk received an average rating. Six companies, including Samsung Electronics Galaxy Store, Apple App Store, One Store app market operators, Facebook, MediaLog, and Enex Telecom (MVNO), were evaluated as generally insufficient in user protection management systems, damage prevention activities, and user feedback and complaint handling performance.

The KCC included YouTube (Google), KakaoTalk (Kakao), and Facebook in the evaluation targets for the first time this year. Facebook was found to be generally insufficient in submitting data for evaluation items and understanding the evaluation system. YouTube showed improvement compared to last year's pilot evaluation, with the customer management officer attending the interview evaluation in person.

The KCC plans to expand the scope of evaluation targets for value-added telecommunications service providers such as OTTs and MVNOs in consideration of user scale and user inconvenience when establishing future user protection operation evaluation plans. Han Sang-hyuk, Chairman of the Korea Communications Commission, said, “We will continue to encourage service providers' voluntary user protection efforts through user protection operation evaluations and continuously expand policies that users can feel.”