Joo Byunggi: "Will See Coupang Investigation Through... Restore Undermined Justice"

Indicates Intention to Resume Investigation into Coupang

Yonhap News Agency

Joo Byungki, Chairman of the Korea Fair Trade Commission, has expressed his intention to resume the investigation into Coupang, which had previously been derailed following a court decision to dismiss the request to suspend the on-site investigation.

During an appearance on the CBS radio program "Park Sungtae's News Show" on the 29th, Chairman Joo responded to the host's inquiry about plans to conduct another on-site investigation of Coupang by saying, "I will see through the efforts to restore justice that was undermined by the suspended Coupang investigation."

Previously, from August 19 to 24, the Fair Trade Commission attempted an on-site investigation at Coupang's headquarters to secure materials related to suspicions of violations of the Act on Fair Transactions in Large Retail Business. However, Coupang refused to cooperate with the investigation, claiming it had not received proper notice, leading the commission to withdraw. Subsequently, after the court provisionally suspended the Fair Trade Commission's on-site investigation decision for a month, the court ultimately dismissed the suspension on the 23rd, clearing the way for a reinvestigation.

Regarding Coupang's alleged violations, Chairman Joo explained, "If a company forces unfavorable transactions on numerous sellers, it may become subject to regulatory action," and added, "That is the nature of the suspicions that led to this investigation." He also emphasized, "It is a relief that the presiding judge has recognized the importance of public interest, which is built upon the rights of economically disadvantaged parties and hundreds of thousands of small business owners."

Concerning ongoing claims in the U.S. House of Representatives that the Fair Trade Commission is discriminating against Coupang, a U.S. company, Chairman Joo firmly stated, "No major U.S. media outlet is reporting on their claims."

Asked whether he mentioned the Coupang issue in his recent meeting with the head of the U.S. competition authority, he replied, "There was no need to state it so explicitly," and added, "The U.S. competition authorities are well aware of the capabilities of our own agency."

Commenting on the launch next month of the newly established Special Investigation Planning Team, Chairman Joo explained, "As the scale and influence of the platform economy increase, our approach to enforcing competition law itself needs to be agile and adaptive to these changes."

He further noted, "A specialized unit is needed to deal with a wide range of legal violations such as abuse of market dominance, issues related to advertising practices, and bundled sales by platform operators like Coupang, Naver, Kakao, and Baemin (Baedal Minjok)."

On the subject of the controversial delivery app fees, he stated, "The delivery app market in Korea is five times larger than that of Japan, larger than those of Germany and the UK combined, and about one-third the size of the U.S. market. It is highly concentrated with strong demand and high sales volumes, making it a structure where delivery apps can generate high profits at low cost." He suggested the need to reduce these fees, saying, "Given these conditions, commission fees including transaction fees, advertising expenses, and delivery charges are excessively high."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.