Abstract

[Abstract(Law)] Study on the Current Regulations and Improvements on Making the Private Benefits of Large Enterprise Group¡¯s Owners under Fair Trade Act - A Focus on the Case of Korean Airlines

  • DATE WRITTEN : 2020-11-02
  • WRITER : APCC
  • VIEW : 1109
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1Article 23-2(Prohibition on Undue Support Practices to Specially Related Persons) is adopted under the Fair Trade Act for the purpose of promoting the private interests of the owners groups of large enterprises and preventing the concentration of economic power. If the conditions are met, the companies belonging to large enterprise groups will be provided with unfair advantages, for which large sums of stocks of these companies are owned by the owners of large enterprises. As a result, there is a possibility of concentration of economic power.

The structure of Article 23-2 of the Fair Trade Act is that, if each of the acts listed in Article 23-2 is established, an act that gives unjust profits is also established. Accordingly, the requirement for "unreasonableness" is a negative measure for judging and identifying cases clearly unrelated to the concentration of economic power. If there is any action mentioned in Article 23-2, unreasonableness is recognized unless there is any other special excuse.

If the KFTC does not interpret it like this, and if it directly proves the possibility of unfair economic power, such as the Seoul High Court Judgment of the Korean Airlines Case, this kind of proof is almost impossible, so the regulation under Article 23-2 will not work. This is against the objective of the legislator positioning Article 23-2 in Chapter 5, not Chapter 3 of the Korean Fair Trade Act, to regulate the self-interest fraud that occurs before the concentration of economic power occurs, and to prevent the occurrence of economic concentration in advance. Therefore, the "unreasonableness" referred to in Article 23-2 of the Fair Trade Act is satisfied by itself, which is recognized by the establishment of each act of providing benefits, and such acknowledgement of "unreasonableness" is the beginning of the concern that a large group of enterprises may concentrate their economic power by providing them with unjust benefits rather than legitimate benefits
      
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