The Case Handling Process of Korea Fair Trade Commission

Abstract

In-house counsel of multinational enterprises pay keen attention to the legal system of the target countries where they would engage in business activities. The enterprises that have invested or will invest in Korea might expect the Korean antitrust law. As far as actual enforcement is concerned, every nation has its unique feature. In the United States, for example, cartels and abuse of market dominance in violation of its antitrust law are sanctioned exclusively under the judicial process. In case of European countries, however, those issues are addressed according to the decision of Commissioners meeting (similar to the Member countries' cabinet meeting) in the first place, which is followed by European Court's decisions. The KFTC introduced judicial procedures such as adversary system and oral hearing. Consequently, the suspected enterprises including multinational ones are entitled to exercise their rights to defense duly guaranteed in the judicial procedures. I think that In-house counsels will be interested in learning the Korean competition law enforcement. Considering that this marks the first of its kind, I thought as more appropriate to give you an overview of our law enforcement procedure rather than presenting specific enforcement cases.