APPC Homepage

- Experts on competition and consumer policies gathered to discuss 40 years of achievements and future development directions -

\"The 40th Anniversary Academic Symposium of the Korea Fair Trade Commission\" was held for two days from Thursday, April 8 to Friday, April 9 at the international conference hall of the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) located in Jung-gu, Seoul. To commemorate the 40th anniversary, this symposium aimed to evaluate achievements of competition and consumer policies and also to discuss future development directions. It was co-hosted with academic societies and organizations in order to enable participation from a large number of experts.

* (Day 1) Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency, Korea Competition Law Association, Korea Academic Society of Industrial Organization
(Day 2) KFTC, Korea Consumer Agency, Korea Consumer Law Society, Korean Society of Consumer Policy and Education, Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations

In addition to organizations presiding over the symposium, participants from various fields such as academic societies and research institutes related to fair trade, economic organizations, civic groups, consumer organizations, and legal circles joined the event.

* Based on consideration of the disease control situation, the number of participants were minimized (about 90 people a day), and the event was live-streamed online (YouTube: FTC TV).

On the first day of the symposium (April 8), after the opening speech given by Sung-wook Joh, Chairperson of the KFTC, participants discussed competition policy outcomes and development plans under the theme \"40 Years of Fair Trade System, Performance and Future Policy Direction.\"

\"Based on the development of the fair trade system and commitment of economic agents over the past 40 years, our economy has grown into a mature market economy by no means inferior to any other country,\" Chairperson Joh said in her opening remarks.

However, she stressed that responding to the rapidly changing global economic environment amid the digitalization of the economy and the 4th Industrial Revolution and seeking the direction of consumer policy in the post-COVID19 era are important tasks faced by the fair trade system. Chairperson Joh also emphasized, \"Opportunities for fostering communication among representatives from various areas of the fair trade community such as this symposium will be an important stepping stone for the development of the fair trade system.“

After the opening remarks, Chul-kyu Kang, the former Chairperson of the KFTC (12th Chairperson) made a keynote presentation on \"40 Years of Fair Trade System, Performance and Future Policy Direction,\" and three sessions were held.

In the first session, along with a special discussion* to look back on 40 years of fair trade system and forecast future development directions, participants discussed the achievements, challenges, and measures of the 40 years of the Fair Trade Act enforcement from the perspective of competition law.

* Participated by Oh-seung Kwon, former KFTC Chairperson (13th Chairperson), Hyun-yoon Shin, Honorary Professor at Yonsei University and Kyung-taek Jung, Lawyer

During the second session, participants exchanged views on measures for anti-competitive practices of platforms, which are the backbone of the digital economy, mergers in innovation markets, and other new competition policy issues raised by the advent of digital economy. In the third session, ways to improve the competition law enforcement system\'s efficiency by enhancing the law enforcement capacity of the KFTC, the Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency, and local governments and strengthening private enforcement were discussed.

On the second day of the symposium (April 9), under the theme \"Consumer Policy Direction in the Post-COVID19 Era,\" participants discussed how consumer policy can respond to changes in the policy environment. Following the greetings by Chairperson Joh, a keynote presentation on \"New Horizons and Challenges in Consumer Policy\" was given by Jung-sung Yeo, the civilian head of Consumer Policy Committee, and two sessions were held.

The first session discussed the roles of government and business in promoting consumers\' rights and interests. Participants examined achievements of securing consumer orientation of government policies through Consumer Policy Committee operation, development directions, and ways to expand consumer-centered management. The second session was about how policies on e-commerce consumers can respond to the rapid growth of the platform economy and measures to keep consumers safe from harmful online products.

It is likely that this symposium has contributed to the development of the fair trade system since the experience of operating the fair trade system accumulated by the fair trade community including the KFTC, academia, legal circles, business circles, civic groups, and consumer organizations was shared along with knowledge for future challenges and development directions. Moreover, the KFTC plans to use the opinions made by experts at this symposium as important reference materials for future legal and institutional improvements.

Also, the KFTC will endeavor to reasonably and effectively improve the system and law enforcement by closely cooperating and communicating with fair trade policy experts and stakeholders. For this, starting from next month, the KFTC will jointly host academic symposiums with relevant academic societies, research institutes, and organizations once or twice a month on specific topics in each sector, such as competition, consumer, large business group, and cooperation beneficial for all.

*The Korean text of the documents is confirmed to be authentic and English version is only for reference

[Competition Policy Division, Consumer Policy Division, KFTC, April 8, 2021]