클라우드 컴퓨팅(cloud computing) 환경 하에서의 경쟁제한적 거래관행에 관한 규제 법리 연구

The cloud computing era represents a significant shift in relationships in the information technology field. This shift will raise many competitive or antitrust issues among other legal issues. Many antitrust issues will not become apparent until cloud computing business models become better established, but some issues such as tie-ins and exclusive dealings are readily apparent even at the threshold. But there are some distinctive aspects to be considered in assessing competitive effects on the cloud computing sectors like market definition, data portability and interoperability, etc. At least at this early stage in the development of cloud computing, it would be very challenging to prove that a cloud provider had market power through network and lock-in effect in a putative market for the sale of cloud computing services. In this challenging circumstances, this article provides some preliminary thoughts on these questions and considerations that should be taken into account by competition authorities and courts in Korea, and tries to suggests some implications to them throughout the jurisprudence and legal case mainly in United States.