• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.270-276
• /
• 2017

Previous studies of the effects of comparative advertising did not consider that comparative advertising should satisfy its legal conditions otherwise it would be unfairly comparative advertising. In this context, this study reviewed the current legal definition of 'unfairly comparative advertising' to clarify it by the definition of unfairly comparative advertising of the Guideline of Judgement of Comparative Labeling or Advertising based on the Act on Fair Labeling and Advertising. In addition, this study confirmed that comparative advertising was banned by the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, which was the previous act on unfair labeling or advertising, and identified differences between the two Acts in regulating unfairly comparative advertising. This study analyzed 354 adjudication cases of unfairly comparative advertising based on the regulation of Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. As a result, the definitions of the two Acts of unfairly comparative advertising were found to correspond to each other. These results suggest empirically that comparative advertising was not banned legally in the past and the definition and judgement standards of unfairly comparative advertising have not been changed.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.237-250
• /
• 2022

On September 28, 2020, the Korea Fair Trade Commission introduced a proposed bill entitled the "Fair Online Platform Intermediary Transactions Act." We quantify the impact of this proposed act on Naver, Korea's major digital platform. Finding a proper control unit is not an easy task in social science studies. We overcome this caveat by constructing a synthetic version of Naver using Abadie & Gardeazabal's (2003) synthetic control method. It appears that the economic cost of the proposed act is not negligible at all. Naver's opportunity loss amounted to 16.18% of its market capitalization (approximately 8.5 trillion won in comparison with its pre-regulation market capitalization). Any regulation-based approaches to resolving digital platform issues have both promises and pitfalls. The results highlight that regulatory bodies should carefully gauge the impact of such regulations, as we have seen with Naver's case.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.57-75
• /
• 2007

Ever since franchising emerged in the industry of distribution, it has been growing explosively in the U.S.A. and all other countries as well. It is a method of expanding a business by licensing independent businessman to sell the franchiser's products and/or services or to follow a format and trade style created by the franchiser using the franchiser's trade marks and trade names. Franchising is a form of business that touches upon many different areas of law including, but not limited to, general contract law, general principles of commercial law, law of intellectual property, competition law, fair trade practices law and other industry specific laws e.g., the Fair Practices in Franchising Act in Korea. Arbitration is a long established, legally recognized procedure for submitting disputes to an outside person(s), mutually selected by the parties, for a final and binding decision. Despite its merits as an alternative dispute resolution, it has been criticized, on the other hand, particularly by franchisees' attorneys on the ground that even though it is required to protect the franchisees against the enforcement of pre-dispute arbitration agreements because of the franchisees' paucity of bargaining power vis-a-vis the franchiser, arbitration cannot afford it. Until recently, however, little has been written about the legal issues pertaining to franchise agreement and arbitration clause contained therein in Korea. This treatise reviews the cases and arguments in relation to the subject especially of the U.S.A., which have been accumulated for decades. The issues addressed herein are the pre-emption by the FAA, the disputes to be arbitrated, the selection and qualification of arbitrators, the place of arbitration hearings and the evidentiary rules applicable, the expenses of arbitration, theory of fiduciary duty and the like, all of which are relevant to franchise agreement.

• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.19 no.1
• /
• pp.155-187
• /
• 2017

In the US, the Sections 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 are still being used to resolve disputes. The U.S' such unilateral retaliations grounded on the Sections 301 of the Trade Act, in fact, violate the WTO agreements and hinder the development of international trade as the trade partner may assume it as a reprisal move impeding the fair settlement of disputes. Here, this study is going to examine the characteristics and functions of the WTO dispute settlement system briefly and compare the countermeasures recognized to be legitimate by the WTO with the U.S' unilateral retaliation. Also, this author will analyse the US-Japan Automobiles (DS6) and EC-Bananas III (DS27) as one of the typical cases resulted from the unilateral retaliation. According to the result, these cases do not conform to WTO-consistency, and it implies that it is absurd to accept the US' unilateral retaliation internationally. In conclusion, presently, it is a global trend to solidify protectionism, and to vitalize trade and resolve trade disputes efficiently, it is needed to prohibit the recourse to unilateral retaliations and also positively apply the WTO dispute settlement system(DSU) defining rules about how to strengthen the multilateral system.

• The Journal of Information Technology
• /
• v.8 no.2
• /
• pp.135-148
• /
• 2005

The purpose of this article is to study on the Comparison of the Basic Law on Electronic Commerce and the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act(UETA). The purpose of th Basic Law on Electronic Commerce is to contribute to the national economy by clarifying the legal effect of transactions by means of electronic messages so as to ensure the security and reliability thereof and to secure fair trade, and further by establishing sound and orderly transactions, and promoting electronic commerce. It is important to understand that the purpose of the UETA is to remove barriers to electronic commerce by validating and effectuating electronic records and signatures. It is not a general contracting-the substantive rules of contracts remain unaffected by UETA. Nor is a digital signature statute. To the extent that a State has a Digital Signature Law, the UETA is designed to support and compliment that statute.

• International Commerce and Information Review
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.143-162
• /
• 2008

The Title 19 of the U.S. Code covers custom duties and is the heart of international trade regulation in the U.S.. Among the provisions in Title 19, is Chapter 4, the Tariff Act of 1930. Under U.S. Antidumping duty law, dumping occurs when `subject merchandise' is imported into the U.S. and sold at less than `fair value.' The administration of U.S. Antidumping duty law is shared between the Department of Commerce('Commerce') and International Trade Commission('USITC'). The U.S. Court of International Trade ("CIT") and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ("CAFC") decided the review of antidumping duty ("AD") determinations and administrative review results issued by the Commerce and the USITC, as well as the review of countervailing duty ("CVD") decisions. In Eurodif S.A. v. United States, the CAFC considered the important issue of whether the antidumping and countervailing duty laws apply to sales and purchases of services--in this case, the sale or purchase of enrichment services. Although the federal courts had considered the issue of whether a sale of enrichment services constitutes a sale of goods, the issue had never arisen in the context of the antidumping and countervailing duty laws. Also this is the first time that the Supreme Court has ever agreed to consider an antidumping case.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.78-84
• /
• 2021

Issues have arisen over the monopoly of housing sales guarantees by the Housing and Urban Guarantee Corporation. If the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport appoints an additional guarantee institution, there is concern that the property protection between the two parties is insufficient due to excessive competition and the weakening of urban regeneration resources. It argues that housing supply policies for stabilization of the housing market can be smoothly implemented through monopoly projects. This is judged to be an abuse of market dominant position under the Fair Trade Act, and excessive restrictions on pre-sale guarantee requirements may cause delays in business and infringement of property rights of members. First, the establishment of a designation system for market dominant operators of the Fair Trade Commission enables new entry of private guarantee institutions. Second, it is necessary to improve regulations under Article 63 of the Fair Trade Act (consultation on the establishment of laws restricting competition, etc.). Third, through the establishment of the 「Rules on Housing Supply」 under Article 15 (2), the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport can additionally designate a guarantee institution, thereby guaranteeing the right to select a pre-sale guarantee for the business entity. In addition, it is expected that at least one of a number of guarantee insurance companies can be designated to improve the efficiency of the distribution of social benefits, thereby lowering the volatility of housing prices. Listen and suggest.

• Korean journal of communication and information
• /
• v.39
• /
• pp.428-472
• /
• 2007

The purpose of this study is to find that how the principles of Fair Labelling and Advertising Act(called 'FLAA' hereinafter) apply to the unfair comparative labelling and advertising activities, as compared with deceptive and misleading, by analyzing the related judicial precedents for 7 years since FLAA enacted, The exact 17 precedents of Fair Trade Commission were analyzed to be judged the unfair comparative labelling and advertising activities, and partly also deceptive, falsified and exaggerated, which include in overlapping 5 comparative counterparts, 11 comparative standards, 7 comparative contents and 4 comparative methods in the unfairness types of comparison. Conclusively, it is needed that the unfairness of comparative labelling and advertising activities should be multiply considered in the concepts of deception, false or exaggeration and slanderousness, to more clearly apply to the facts and to more sufficiently protect consumers from the misleading environments.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
• /
• v.2 no.1
• /
• pp.119-133
• /
• 2011

The objective of this study is to establish the basic concepts for franchise agreements in consideration of both theoretical and practical conditions, to set the parameters for the discussion regarding the practical business matters pertaining to franchise agreements, and to analyze the criteria for determining the illegality of unfair trade practices based on research into actual practices in franchise transactions and on case studies of the implementation of laws by the Fair Trade Commission. The study aims to thereby contribute to the stabilization of laws in franchise transactions, benefiting all parties including franchise-related institutions, participants in franchise transactions, and related consumers. In conclusion, even in cases where regulatory exceptions are applied within the Fair Franchise Transactions Act when determining the illegality of franchised businesses, it is impossible to eliminate illegality unless all necessary and sufficient conditions have been included, and even if the procedure for evading illegality has been undertaken, illegality may not be eliminated unless the contents thereof are legitimate.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
• /
• v.13 no.1
• /
• pp.27-36
• /
• 2012

This study aims to find out the effectiveness of regulation of promotional gifts and exemption of charges by analyzing the judgement criterion of illegality and the corrective action taken by regulatory agencies and suggests effective way of regulation. The results show that recently the differences of price-cut is getting bigger. In addition, Fair Trade Commission has considered discounts as unfair predatory price only if price is below the cost. But in the telecommunication business law enacted by Korea Communications Commission, 'expected profits per subscriber' has been applied as a key criterion. KCC's criterion is based not on the expected profit of individual service provider but on the averaged profit of services providers. It doesn't consider differences of service quality and the cost structure between dominant firm and late comers. Prohibition act of user discrimination result in the increase of subscriber and operating profits of late comers but this is not direct purpose of regulation. It can be desirable in the aspect of fair competition but since it may reduce consumer welfare, the criterion needs to be reconsidered.