The Analyses for the Telecommunications Merger Case in Korea and the Evaluations of the Tensions between the Public interest and Competition －Focusing on the Differences between the KCC and the KFTC-

In Korea, telecommunication merger reviews are conducted by both the Korean Fair Trade Commission (hereinafter “KFTC”)1) and the Korean Communications Commission (hereinafter “KCC”).2) This dual merger review has caused many legal controversies over the past decades.3) Most objections are in regards to the high costs that arise from overlapped and duplicate reviews.4) However, a closer examination suggests that the merger reviews by the KFTC and the KCC are complementary and work to balance both competition and public interest in telecommunication sector.5) The dual merger review is not redundant, but beneficial to business and society, as will be demonstrated in this paper.6) First, this paper explains the differences between the KCC’s and KFTC’s approaches to mergers. Second, this paper discusses how the KCC’s sector specific protection complements the KFTC’s general competition enforcement to promote competition in the telecommunication industry. Then, this paper critically evaluates the tension between the KCC’s public interest criteria and the KFTC’s concern for competition. Finally, this paper reviews an example merger with sufficient analysis to illustrate the relationship between the two agencies’ reviews.