[Editorial] Unfair Yardstick of FTC

The realities of the unfair in-house trade of the media companies and the charge of the retroactive taxes which were declared by the Fair Trade Commission, have severely lost the sense of balance. Hence, I cannot help but to question the intention of the government.

First of all, the government`s offensive measures have continued as if the measures were planned to the extent that they would threaten the existence of the media companies. And the further attacks have been anticipated. This fact sufficiently demonstrates that the government has taken the emotional and the retaliatory actions.

Can it be simply attribute to the coincidence that that there was an extremely huge gap in the scale of the retroactive taxes between the companies who have been critical toward the government and the companies who have kept the relatively favorable stance?

No business companies and no media companies who are operating by the Korean domestic legal system, can demand the preferential treatment on the taxation or the obligation of fair trade in the market. Therefore, if the tax probe was conducted objectively and impartially by the reliable governmental organization, all media groups should accept the results. But if the standards, methods, and the results of the investigation noticeably lost the principle of equity, the media companies as well as the readers would naturally have doubts about the real intention of the government.

The FTC never conducted the tax investigation by virtue of its authority on the companies except the top-30 conglomerates and the state-owned companies, and the investigation on top-4 conglomerates took only 50 days. Therefore, the fact that the FTC was probing small and medium media companies for 68 days raises the suspicions on the genuineness of the investigation.

Furthermore, the FTC charged the extra-large amount of fines, more than the fines imposed to 7 conglomerates among the investigated 30 conglomerates. And it did not admit the data for vindication which were presented by the media companies. Such unusual practices of its authority will hardly receive the conformity and the consent from the public opinion.

The FTC should exist in order to accelerate the competition in the market and to enhance the rights and the benefits to the consumers by establishing the fair trading order. But the legal experts or even the experienced officials of the conglomerates showed the suspicions on how the media companies have violated the trading order in the market, and whether their practices have been so malignant that the huge amount of fines were imposed.

According to the past convention, the government`s real intention and the background of the tax investigation would naturally be revealed after the transfer of the government subject. We need to watch.