S. Korean Watchdog Publishes Platform-Specific Abuse Of Dominance Guidelines

New screening guidelines for abuse of dominance by online platforms have been implemented in South Korea.

In a statement, the Korea Fair Trade Commission, or KFTC, said the platform-specific guidelines that define the screening criteria for dominance abuse stipulated in competition law have been finalized.

The authorities will also revise antitrust laws to tighten decision-making processes on merger and acquisition reviews in a bid to put the brakes on local platform operators’ business expansion.

Read more: South Korean Watchdog Refers K Cube Holdings To Prosecution

Other unfair trade practices in app stores, including the compulsory in-app payment systems, will be subject to the government’s strict monitoring plan, the government added.

The plan also requires local platform operators, like Naver and Kakao, to build separate backup data centers to prevent service disruptions in case of disaster such as fire.

The move came as the South Korean government has vowed to come up with measures to lay the groundwork for fair competition in the online platform market after the nationwide service outage caused by a fire at a Kakao data center in October.

Kakao’s dominant chat messenger KakaoTalk, which has 43 million users in a country with a population of 51 million, was affected by the fire, leading to a massive disruption in services tied to the app, ranging from social networking and business to finance and transportation.