• Journal of Legislation Research
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• no.41
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• pp.401-434
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• 2011

The discussion on the adoption of the horizontal regulatory framework is underway to overcome the problems regarding the vertical regulatory framework resulting from a convergence of broadcasting and telecommunications services. Recently, however, the horizontal regulatory framework shows its limitation to regulate the ecosystem established mainly by Google and Apple. The existing horizontal regulatory framework does not fully reflect the characteristics of the two-sided market and the change in the competition structure in the broadcasting and telecommunications sector. What is important to note is that if the existing horizontal regulatory framework is simply applied to the ecosystem, a regulatory imbalance can be caused among ecosystems. The existing horizontal regulatory framework, which is subject to a value chain structure, categorizes business entities into either contents layer or transmission layer and applies the same regulation to all business entities in the same category. However, in the ecosystem, a keystone-player can be categorized into different layers depending on its strategy. Therefore, if the existing horizontal regulatory framework is applied as it is, the regulatory imbalance between keystone-players located in less regulated areas and keystone-players located in more regulated areas occurs resulting in a distortion of competition. There are two possible ways to establish a new regulatory framework to prevent the distortion of competition likely to be caused by the adoption of a horizontal regulatory system. First, a new ecosystem regulatory framework different from the existing one can be established. Second, the horizontal regulatory framework can be modified to reflect the ecosystem elements. The first approach is hard to adopt given the current situation as the approach requires the analysis of all broadcasting and telecommunications ecosystems including mobile and wired services; currently research and study on the competition conditions in the ecosystems is not enough. Therefore, this paper supports the second approach proposing a modified horizontal regulatory framework through the improvement of institutions and remedies suitable for accommodating the ecosystem elements. This paper intends to propose a way to regulate broadcasting and telecommunications ecosystems taking into consideration the ecosystem elements on top of the Telecommunications Business Act, Broadcasting Act, IPTV Act, the competition condition evaluation system of the Basic Act on Broadcasting and Telecommunications Development, and regulation on common carriers under the Telecommunications Business Act.