Telecom authority calls for fairness toward local portals

By Lee Min-hyung

The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) called for the need to establish social consensus to stop discrimination on local internet companies with regard to their overseas counterparts.

“We are going to establish and run a public organization by inviting experts from civic groups and research bodies, in a bid to resolve the ongoing dispute,” KCC Chairman Lee Hyo-seong said in a meeting with leaders of portal and internet companies here, Wednesday. They include Google Korea CEO John Lee, Naver CEO Han Seong-sook and Kakao CEO Lim Ji-hoon

The remarks are aimed at the years-long dispute between Korean portal firms - such as Naver - and their overseas counterparts including Google and Facebook. The former has for years stepped up its criticism of the overseas portal giants operating businesses here, claiming that they are taking advantage of legal loopholes in particular tax issues.

But every time the issue surfaces, the U.S.-based tech giants have countered the argument by saying they are fully abiding by the Korean legal system and the issue should be directed to the legal authorities here.

In a bid to stop the controversy, the KCC chief held the event to hear opinions from the top portal companies here. He pointed out that the controversy is preventing the local internet industry from enhancing its global competitiveness.

“We are aware that internet companies are making all-out efforts to push for mutual growth with their small- and medium-sized partners,” Lee said.

He did not elaborate on any legal or hard-line regulatory stance during the meeting, and instead, called for the internet giants to actively team up with the new organization to reach a social consensus which he said will help put an end to the ongoing discrimination-related controversies.

“To build a healthy internet ecosystem here, internet companies need to do their utmost to protect their users’ information and fairly compete with their rivals,” he said.

This is the first time that the KCC chief has held a meeting with the chiefs of the leading internet companies since taking office this August. But he fell short of commenting on details over when the new organization will be established.