Photo = Fair Trade Commission

 

[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) is set to expand its workforce to enhance its monitoring of digital platforms.


According to the government last Friday, the KFTC recently announced amendments to its organizational rules and regulations, stating that it will add two investigators (grade 5) to strengthen platform oversight in response to the evolving digital environment. Additionally, one expert will be hired to improve the economic analysis related to competition.


A KFTC official stated, "There are cases involving domestic and international platform companies, such as bundling on YouTube and Coupang," and explained, "Platform cases often involve large companies and require economic analysis, so we are increasing our staff."


Indeed, one of the KFTC’s key focus areas for this year is regulating platform practices such as "membership bundling." Google Korea, for example, was investigated by the KFTC in 2023 for allegedly bundling YouTube Music with YouTube Premium.

 

 

 

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