US Chamber of Commerce supports Google and Apple amidst challenges

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, representing the U.S. business community, stated on Monday (local time) that the Fair Trade Commission opposes the 'Platform Fair Competition Promotion Act' that the Korean government is seeking to legislate. The statement expressed concern, asserting, "It has the potential to violate trade agreements by targeting foreign companies." This indicates a firm stance, citing the possibility of violating the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in response to concerns that major U.S. tech companies, including Google, Apple, and Amazon, could be regulated by this law.

On this day, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a statement under the name of Charles Freeman, senior vice president for Asia at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The statement expressed concerns: "We are concerned that Korea is rushing to pass the platform ban bill." It argued that this legislation could hinder competition beneficial to consumers, neglect good regulatory practices, and arbitrarily target foreign companies. Freeman urged the Fair Trade Commission to demonstrate transparency and open dialogue, emphasizing the importance of providing ample opportunities for prior discussions with the U.S. business community before enacting legislation.

This bill categorizes a limited number of market-dominant platform companies as 'dominant operators' in advance and prohibits them from engaging in unfair practices, such as pushing out competitors. The industry anticipates that both domestic platform companies, such as Naver and Kakao, and global giants, including Google and Apple, who dominate the operating system (OS) market, may be designated as 'dominant operators.'

The United States is notably concerned that Chinese tech giants, currently holding a relatively low market share in Korea, might attempt to exploit the regulations introduced by this legislation for their advantage.


weappon@donga.com