EU and Japan Meet with Competition Commissioner: "Platform Operators Must Strive for Self-Regulation"

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced on the 25th that it discussed digital economy issues with competition authorities from the European Union (EU) and Japan and explored cooperation measures.

At the Seoul International Competition Forum held on the 4th and 5th at the Mayfield Hotel in Gangseo-gu, Seoul, KFTC Chairman Han Ki-jung held bilateral talks with Olivier Guersent, Director-General for Competition at the European Commission, and Kazuyuki Furuya, Chairman of the Japan Fair Trade Commission.

During consultations with the EU, Chairman Han emphasized that Korea supports self-regulation to improve contract practices through negotiations between platforms and merchants. He stated, “Self-regulation is only possible with active efforts from platform operators,” adding, “If contractual relationships are uniformly regulated, innovation may be hindered, so operators prefer self-regulation.”

In talks with Japan, they introduced the concretization of contract terms for platform private self-regulatory organizations, the operation of autonomous dispute resolution councils, and a task force (TF) to establish policy directions on platform monopolies. Chairman Furuya mentioned that Japan’s Digital Market Competition Policy Headquarters published a competition assessment report on the mobile ecosystem and argued that legal systems, including pre-regulation, need to be reviewed in detail.

Discussions also took place on eradicating bid-rigging in the public sector and regulating corporate activities for carbon neutrality. Chairman Han said, “We are implementing institutional improvements and internal reforms within public institutions to eradicate bid-rigging in the public sector.” Chairman Furuya introduced the Green Guidelines announced to prevent competition-restricting acts arising from achieving carbon neutrality.

The KFTC evaluated that “there was a consensus on the importance of international cooperation among competition authorities, such as sharing law enforcement experiences and exchanging opinions, to respond to competition issues arising in the digital economy.”