공정거래법상 사업활동방해의 공정거래저해성 - 공정거래위원회 의결 제2013-142호(2013.7.11.)의 사실관계를 중심으로

Unreasonable interference of business activities, a type of unfair trade practices prohibited under Article 23 of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act has a unique nature in that it is very hard to distinguish illegal unreasonable interference from legal aggressive pro-competitive business practices which the Act should encourage. In particular, when interference with the competitor’s business is performed by means of rendering beneficial treatments to dealers for promoting one’s own business, the distinction between illegal and legal one is blurred. The issue is what contents and judging criteria of the requirement of tendency to impede fair trade as provided for in Article 23(1) are. This issue is inter-wound with the regulation scheme for unilateral conduct under the Korea Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. This article looks into the legislative history of the prohibition on unreasonable interference of business activities on the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act and compares it with related provision under the Japanese Antimonopoly Act. Then, it discusses the theories and court decisions on the requirement of tendency to impede fair trade. On the foundation of those discussions, it analyses the policy basis for prohibiting unreasonable interference of business activities under a competition law and figures out judging criteria for tendency to impede fair trade in unreasonable interference of business activities cases.