U.S. Chamber of Commerce slams Korea's antitrust regulations

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticized Korea's antitrust regulations targeting Big Tech companies, which could impact businesses such as Google, Meta and Amazon.

Charles Freeman, senior vice president for Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, speaks during a forum on U.S.-Korea tech collaborations on Dec. 8, 2023, in western Seoul. The chairman issued a statement on Monday slamming Korea's ongoing efforts to beef up antitrust regulations on big tech companies. [YONHAP]

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce raised red flags against Korea’s latest moves to beef up antitrust regulations on Big Tech companies, which could impact major American businesses such as Google, Meta and Amazon as well as domestic players like Naver and Kakao.

“The U.S. Chamber is concerned about Korea’s apparent rush to pass platform legislation,” said Charles Freeman, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's senior vice president for Asia in a statement issued Monday. The chamber is the country’s largest business lobbying group.

“It is critical that the full text of any proposed legislation be made publicly available and that the government of Korea provide ample opportunity for engagement with a range of stakeholders, including the American business community and the U.S. government,” said Freeman.

Korea’s antitrust authorities have been pushing to implement a new rule similar to the European Union’s (EU's) Digital Markets Act tentatively called the Platform Competition Promotion Act. The bill aims to prevent dominant platform operators — “gatekeepers,” per EU’s term — from engaging in unfair business practices such as favoring in-house products or services, cross-selling its services with other products, or preventing multi-homing, the practice of simultaneously connecting to multiple platforms.

The EU defines certain platforms that generate more than 7.5 billion euros in annual revenue as “gatekeepers” in the digital sector and imposes regulations on their core services.

The senior vice president pointed out that such platform bills are “deeply flawed,” arguing that they “place governments in a position of violating their trade commitments by arbitrarily targeting foreign firms,” and hinder market competition.

Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) released a statement on Tuesday vowing to “take not only domestic but also U.S. and other overseas stakeholders’ opinions fully into account” in proceeding with the bill’s enactment, once the details are finalized.

The FTC is expected to draft for a legislative proposal for the platform bill as early as next month. The antitrust watchdog is currently in discussion with relevant government agencies and stakeholders over the details of the bill.

“The FTC has been listening to feedback from the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea (AmCham) and has held meetings with the chamber and its members twice so far, on Jan. 11 and 25,” the regulator said in the latest statement, adding that the FTC chairman will deliver a presentation on March 7 upon the chamber’s request.

Major platform operators such as Google, Meta and Apple, however, boycotted the latest closed-door meeting, which was held at the chamber's office in western Seoul on Jan. 25, as a sign of protest.

William Alan Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic & International Studies, and Kati Suominen, CSIS adjunct fellow, raised similar concerns in their Jan. 11 commentary.

“Korea’s proposed act and the bills under discussion set limits that unfairly target U.S. companies, which will, in turn, end up helping Chinese companies gain a larger market share,” Reinsch and Suominen wrote.

The FTC expects that the proposed bill will only impact a handful of dominant online players including Google, Apple, Naver and Kakao.

BY SHIN HA-NEE [shin.hanee@joongang.co.kr]