Seongwook Cho: "To Address Platform Unfair Practices, We Must Strengthen Capabilities by Recruiting 'Data and Algorithm Experts'"

At the International Meeting of Competition Authority Heads Hosted by the UK Competition and Markets Authority

Jongwook Cho, Chairman of the Fair Trade Commission.

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] Cho Sung-wook, Chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), stated on the 29th, "Based on the Fair Trade Commission's experience in law enforcement on platforms, it is necessary to hire new experts in data and algorithms and strengthen organizational capabilities in the mid to long term."

On this day, Chairman Cho attended online the international meeting of heads of competition authorities, the 'G7+4 Competition Authorities' meeting, hosted by the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), and made these remarks.

This meeting is a follow-up to the G7+4 Summit (June 11-13) and marks the first time the Korean Fair Trade Commission participated in a summit of G7 competition authorities. Attendees include Lina Khan, Chair of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Jonathan Kanter, Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division, and Olivier Guersent, Director-General for Competition at the European Union (EU) Commission.

In the first session held on the 29th, discussions focused on strengthening the organizational capabilities of competition authorities to understand digital markets and design effective corrective measures. It was shared that understanding technology is crucial to properly grasp digital markets and design effective remedies; therefore, expanding organizations and personnel suited to digital markets is necessary. Furthermore, in the rapidly changing digital market, it is insufficient for competition authorities to only conduct ex-post investigations and sanctions; communication with companies is also needed.

Chairman Cho explained, "To effectively respond to rapidly changing digital issues, reviewing recruitment and organizational structure is necessary. In addition, we plan to smarten our working methods by building a 'data portal' that fully digitizes case-related information so that any employee can easily search it."

The second session, held on the afternoon of the 30th, will discuss ways to proactively identify and respond to changes in the digital market and related policy tasks, as well as cooperation methods among competition authorities.

A KFTC official said, "This meeting is an important occasion where heads of major competition authorities gather to discuss digital economy issues, response measures, and international cooperation among competition authorities. The Fair Trade Commission plans to use this meeting as an opportunity to cooperate more closely with advanced competition authorities to address digital issues."