Competition law and policy in the Republic of Korea (‘Korea’) have been developing since the first legislation in 1980, focusing on prohibiting unfair business practices. The Korean competition authority has heavily relied on legal provision on unfair business practices rather than unfair concerted practices, or abuse of market dominance in its enforcement. This provision is unique, giving the Korean competition authority full power in its implementation of law. However, implementation of this legal provision is very unclear, since it can be used as a catch-all provision. This article discusses of crucial problems in Korean competition law and critically analyses current implementation. It then suggests amendments to provisions on unfair business practices. This article adopts a categorization approach based on market share threshold, by looking at other competition regimes’ legal techniques and re-examining them in the Korean context. This article argues that simplified language through clear market power presumption, by means of a market share threshold test, provides concrete guidance for competition law in the civil law system. The Korean competition authority will subsequently narrow the scope of the provision on unfair business practices and develop implementation of law based on anti-competitive agreements and abuse of market dominance.
World Competition