Han Ki-jung, Chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, is scheduled to discuss with heads of major competition authorities worldwide the responses of competition authorities to competition restrictions by platforms.
According to the Fair Trade Commission on the 26th, Chairman Han will attend the 2nd International Meeting of Heads of Competition Authorities jointly hosted by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Antitrust Division in Washington DC, USA, on the 27th (local time).
The meeting will be attended by Lina Khan, Chair of the FTC, Jonathan Kanter, Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ Antitrust Division, Olivier Guersent, Director-General for Competition of the European Union (EU) Commission, as well as heads of competition authorities from Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia, Japan, and others.
Chairman Han will present in a session titled "New Challenges Related to Digital Market Monopolies" that there is a need for global competition authorities to develop a common approach to the competition-restricting strategies of major platforms. In particular, he plans to emphasize the necessity of responding to the "open first, restrict usage later strategy," where platforms initially secure users through active openness but impose restrictive trading conditions or block competitors’ usage once user dependency increases.
He will also mention the "rapid integration to secure dominance strategy," where monopolistic businesses acquire startups in adjacent markets, integrate products, and dominate the market through preferential treatment. Chairman Han intends to introduce cases such as the sanction against Kakao Mobility for abuse of market-dominant position and the establishment of guidelines for reviewing online platform monopolies and oligopolies.
Participants in the meeting are expected to share trends and discuss the need to change merger review standards in line with the recent active competition to develop new technologies and preoccupy markets. Concerns about competition restrictions arising from "mixed mergers" of platform companies and issues related to data concentration caused by mergers are also likely to be included on the agenda. In addition to attending the meeting, Chairman Han plans to hold bilateral consultations with Chair Lina Khan, Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Kanter, and Director-General Olivier Guersent to discuss directions for competition law enforcement.
Fair Trade Commission Chairman Han Ki-jung and James Kim, Chairman of AmCham, are attending a special meeting hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AmCham) with the Fair Trade Commission Chairman on the 20th at the Grand Hyatt Seoul Hotel in Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Photo by Dongju Yoon doso7@
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
