Handset subsidy ban to be lifted next week
A promotional notice about the repeal of the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act is displayed at a mobile phone store in Seoul, Thursday. Yonhap
The decadelong controversial ban on handset subsidies will be lifted starting next week as part of efforts to lower the financial burden on consumers for communications service, the science ministry said Thursday.
The Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act, which currently prohibits mobile carriers from providing excessive discounts or illegal subsidies to customers, will be nullified beginning July 22, according to the ministry.
The National Assembly passed a motion to scrap the act late last year.
The ban, implemented in 2014, was designed to bring transparency to the market by curbing subsidies that exceeded legal limits and foster competition among mobile carriers.
But the policy has been criticized for restricting healthy competition by preventing mobile carriers from offering legal subsidies, consequently limiting opportunities for customers to buy cell phones at lower prices.