티브로드 사건에 대한 고찰: 시장지배력 전이 이론을 중심으로

In 2007 the Seoul High Court delivered the 2007Nu10541 decision which recognized that Tbroad, plaintiff, abused its market dominant position in ‘TV program market’ to achieve an advantage in ‘TV program service market.’ In Tbroad, the Seoul High Court said that a theory of ‘monopolistic leveraging’can be applied to Tbroad’s behavior challenged by Fair Trade Commission(FTC) under the Korean Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (MRFTA). However, in 2008, the Supreme Court denied the applicability of a theory of monopolistic leveraging to Tbroad’s behavior in the question,and remanded the Seoul High Court’s decision. Of course it is true that the Supreme Court in the POSCO decision(2002Du8626) already recognized that a monopolistic leveraging theory can be accepted under the MRFTA when market dominant firm’s refusal to deal in upstream and/or downstream market matters. With regard to the Tbroad case, however, because ‘TV program service market’ is neither upstream nor downstream market, and Tbroad’s behavior challenged by FTC was not ‘refusal to deal,’ it is hardly legitimate to apply a monopolistic leveraging theory to Tbroad’s behavior under the MRFTA and the POSCO jurisprudence as well. For this reason, the Supreme Court’s decision to remand the Seoul High Court’s decision seems definitely reasonable and right.