Monopolies Beware
New Fair Trade Commission chairman Jung Jae-chan took office on Dec. 8. He said at his inaugural ceremony that the organization would promote innovation in various economic fields by stimulating fair market competition. “To this end, we will monitor market monopolies and intellectual property rights abuse in newly-emerging fields such as mobile and platforms, while strictly enforcing the law,” he added.
Such remarks targeting the mobile industry are because of the unbalanced competition and monopoly by a few that have persisted in the market. Google and Apple are rarely curbed by domestic law in the mobile OS market, as with Daum Kakao in the mobile platform market.
“We have made consistent efforts for a while, but unfair practices such as technology misappropriation and excessive supply price cuts still remain as they are,” he continued, adding, “We will continue seeking better measures while thoroughly carrying out cross-shareholding restrictions and regulations on corporate owners’ illegal profit-taking activities introduced last year.”
He also stressed that he would try harder to protect consumers purchasing goods directly from abroad, and that the central and local governments’ competition-limiting regulations should be tackled for economic revitalization.