알고리즘을 통한 가격정보의 교환과 경쟁법적 평가

Nowadays computer and internet are extremely important in our daily life. Convenience created by technological innovation brings us to the computer-related environment. As commercial transactions depend on more computers and other information technologies, competition law needs to develop a new survey methodology that is consistent with the new trend. Due to sophisticated computers, technological innovation will be accelerated, and competition law regulatory agencies will face greater burden as competition environment change significantly. In 2015 the U.S. Department of Justice (hereinafter DOJ) investigated the allegation of pricing fixing in Amazon marketplace and accused. In 2016, in Eturas case, the European Court of Justice (hereinafter ECJ) determined that the development of innovative technological markets is important in cartel’s agreement. As the pricing power is transferred from undertaking to a pricing algorithm, a major concern in competition law is that algorithm will foment cartel (particularly conscious parallelism), and thus, price competition will be less meaningful. Due to the transparency, which is a characteristic of a digital market, algorithm changes the mobility and agility of a market and encourages implicit consent among market players. Market players have a sufficient incentive to transfer the pricing power to a computer. It can be said that an algorithm damages competition, particularly when the algorithm ignores a market price, does not respond to changes in a market, and acts solely for the market players’ pursuance of profits. Accordingly, when the government carries out competition policies, the government needs to examine whether “agreement” or “intent” under the competition law is suitable for the new era. In addition, the government should seriously consider to what extent competition law regulatory agencies intervene in innovative industries.