Against the background of policy discussions and discussions on the introduction of new regulations accompanying the industrial role and social influence of online platforms, this paper discusses the points that must be considered for legal system imp...
Against the background of policy discussions and discussions on the introduction of new regulations accompanying the industrial role and social influence of online platforms, this paper discusses the points that must be considered for legal system improvement discussion and the direction of improvement in order to discusses domestic measures to deal with this in the online platform environment focusing on competition and fair trade legislation. In particular, this paper provides an overview of online platforms and their development process, and examines the corresponding trends in online platform regulations in the EU, the United States, and Korea. I emphasize that impacts may appear differently depending on the market and economic and legal conditions of each country. In addition, based on the recognition of differences between domestic and foreign legal systems, I will organize the points to be noted for improving the Korean online platform legal system, and present the improvement direction of the domestic online platform legal system by dividing it into the competition laws and the fair trade laws.
First, with regard to the competition law system, I present an alternative to the competition law enforcement method, which is to improve the analysis framework and remedy measures on the premise of applying the existing law system. Regarding competition law violations that occur in the field of online platforms, it is necessary to establish standards for complementary and harmonious application of competition protection standards, centering on revised consumer welfare standards which are based on an analytical framework that reflects non-price related performance factors taking into account the characteristics of online platforms. Furthermore, it is necessary to design remedies that presuppose behavioral measures but do not undermine the advantages of online platforms.
Next, with regard to fair trade and transactions fairness law systems, the priority of self-regulation is presented as an alternative to the enforcement of the provisions of unfair trade practices and the introduction of regulations in the form of a special law for transactions fairness. Unfair trade practices regulations can be applied even to acts for which the effect of restricting competition is not recognized or is unclear, and if applied without fully considering the minimum standard of the relevance of trade order or ripple effect, it will harm the diversity and creativity of the online platform field. Under these circumstances, it is necessary to establish a self-regulatory model suitable for the fair trade field, rather than hastily introducing a special law for transactions fairness which is more restrictive than the unfair trade practices provisions into the online platform field. Considering the characteristics of competition and business models in the online platform field, the method of principle-based regulation in which business operators establish and adjust the form of codes of conduct on their own under certain principles and standards presented by the government regarding the regulation of conduct in the field of fair trade is reasonable and effective.