| Fair Trade Commission (South Korea) | |
|---|---|
| Hangul | 공정거래위원회 |
| Hanja | 公正去來委員會 |
| Revised Romanization | Gongjeong Georae Wiwonhoe |
| McCune–Reischauer | Kongjŏng Kŏrae Wiwŏnhoe |
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) is South Korea's regulatory authority for economic competition. It was established in 1981 within the Economic Planning Board. The establishing law was the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (MRFTA), Law No. 3320, December 31, 1980. In 1994, the Fair Trade Commission and its Secretariat were separated from the Economic Planning Board as an independent vice ministerial-level, central administrative organization. In 1996, the status of the KFTC Chairman was elevated from vice-ministerial to ministerial level.
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The original KFTC had five commissioners from 1981 to 1990. This was increased to seven commissioners from 1990 to 1997. Since 1997 the KFTC has had nine commissioners, which includes a Chairman, a Vice-Chairman, and three other standing commissioners. There are four non-standing commissioners. The KFTC is supported in its work by a Secretariat.
The current KFTC Chairman is Dong Su Kim.
Apart from the MRFTA, the KFTC enforces the following statutes:
On December 7, 2005, the KFTC reached the decision to order Microsoft Corporation and Microsoft Korea, inter alia, to unbundle certain tied products, including Windows Media Player and MSN Messenger, and to impose surcharges amounting to 33 billion won (31 million US dollars) for violation of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (MRFTA), including the abuse of market dominant position provision. On October 16th, 2007, the Associated Press reported that Microsoft has stopped appealing the December 2005 decision and has withdrawn the appeal.
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