International response and interest in Google’s prevention of power abuse
Determining whether there is any utility in Google’s prevention of power abuse method, which was first passed in South Korea
[해외특파원 1기 / 이준서 기자]
Domestic and foreign praise continues for the recent passage of the Google Abuse Prevention Act, which prevents the tyranny of global conglomerates. As regulations on Google and Apple are additionally in discussion in the United States and Europe, the first law enacted in South Korea is expected to become an international standard. The institutionalisation of the Google Abuse Prevention Act should be used as a standard so that domestic platform companies do not use monopoly tyranny under the guise of innovation.
There must have been a lot of pressure from multinational technology companies, however it is praiseworthy that the National Assembly and the government has worked closely to pass the bill. The bill prohibits app market operators such as Google and Apple from forcing their payment systems to content providers. South Korea is the first, worldwide, to regulate app market operators’ fee collection behaviour by law, and this is unprecedented.
As a result, the domestic industry will be able to reduce the fee burden of 2 trillion won (approximately 1.7 billion dollars) on global IT firms. Large conglomerate platform companies will be able abuse their monopoly status to force them to use the payment system and prevent tyranny of arbitrarily deducting 30% of fees from app users. Global media, including the U.S, France, Germany and Russia, also positively evaluated that the Korean National Assembly passed the bill for the first time, worldwide, to prevent Apple and Google from forcing payments in the app.
The domestic content industry and creators also welcomed and urged Google and Apple to win-win and collaborate. The Korea Communications Commission also expected it to be a global foundation for platform regulation policies. In the meantime, the National Assembly and the government should thoroughly check and improve whether domestic platform firms have similar power abuse behaviour. Furthermore, whether or not a new competitor will be created to draw people’s attention.
