[Editorial] What Happened to Korea Fair Trade Commission

The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is shaking. It is interesting that the institution, which purposes to establish the economic order, faces the most crucial crisis since the foundation of the organization by its continuous mistakes and biased managements.

The limitation of the FTC`s service capability is exemplified by the court decision that the additional collection of 15.8 million won imposed on Samsung SDS was a wrong judicial application of the FTC. Whether the incident was driven by the lack of expert knowledge or by the misfeasance of arbitrary judgment, the authority and the credibility of the FTC is seriously damaged by the court decision.

The exclusion of Hankyoreh Living Co. Ltd., which is an affiliate of a specific newspaper, from the investigation of the press companies was a problem. However, the dishonesty of the government revealed in the process of the explanations is a more serious problem. In addition, the suspicion of the amplification of the additional collection shows the elastic canon of the FTC. If it is justifiable that the FTC imposed the additional penalty on the press companies, including the additional value tax to the taxation accounting, why didn’t the FTC apply the same method to a single tax probe by now. People are sick and tired of the continuously revised excuses of the FTC.

The derogated situation of the FTC originates in the biased political inclination. The controversies about the term of Lee Nam-Gi, the chairperson of the FTC, may be picked up as a good example. The Seoul Administrative Court turned down the case that the Grand National Party filed to question the validity of the chairperson`s appointment. However, the court indirectly hinted that the appointment holds a legal problem by stating that the GNP does not have a right to file a lawsuit to the case.

The issue has been raised when the Fair Trade Act was amended right after the inexplicable reappointment of the chairperson. The appointive authority might have expected the current functions of the FTC, when he reappointed the chairperson ignoring the potential legal controversies. If the reasons for the FTC`s emphasis on the political plan rather than on the economic theory are derived from the intention of the reappointment, it would be harmful not only for the FTC but also for the government.

It is common sense that the FTC does not exist for a specific political authority. The institution has to perform its duty incessantly to create a fair trade atmosphere.