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On January 28, 2021, a bill of enactment of the Act on the Fairness of Online Platform Intermediary Transactions(“the Online Platform Intermediary Transactions Fairness Bill”) prepared by the Korea Fair Trade Commission(“the KFTC”) was submitted to the National Assembly. This bill is aimed at addressing the risk of unfair trade practices against businesses by online platforms that the KFTC pointed out as one of the problems in the digital fair economy. However, in Korea, not only the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, which is basically a competition law, has a means of fair trade regulation which does not require a rigorous judgment based on restrictions on competition, but also the Act on the Regulation of the Terms and Conditions, which is generally applied to transactions by terms and conditions, regulates both the business relationship between business operators and consumers(B2C) and the business relationships between business operators and business operators(B2B). In Korea\'s regulatory map, which can regulate online platform intermediary transactions according to the existing regulatory framework, the context of the discussion on the introduction of a special transaction fairness act specialized for online platforms is inevitably different from that of the European Union or Japan and must be different.

Against this backdrop, this study aims to explore some research issues while raising questions about the recent online platform regulatory movements, while seeking alternatives. The subject of research to be explored is: First, what is the fair economy policy and what is its relationship with monopoly regulation, and second, what are the fair trade policy and transactions fairness policy that constitute the fair economy policy, and what are their commonalities and differences, and third, the issues of the transactions fairness regulation, which is the main component of the fair economy policy, and what are the implications of the issues in the online platform special law. Through exploration of such research topics, this paper examines some questions that may arise regarding the content of the online platform intermediary transactions fairness bill, assuming that it is necessary to enact a special law on the field of online platform intermediary transactions in any form. In conclusion, this paper takes a negative point of view on those questions, based on the fact that Korea\'s legal system differs from the EU legislation referenced by the KFTC, and that the issues of transactions fairness regulation are not suitable for the online platform environment.

Dae-Sik Hong
(Professor of Law, Sogang University Law School, PhD in Law)

[Yonsei Law Review, Vol. 31, 2021]