The Fast Evolution of the Digital Regulations for Competition and Data Protection in the EU - The Digital Age and Suggestions for the Korean Policy Direction -

There have been a number of important issues relating to the regulations of the digital market in 2018. In particular, the European Commission has announced that the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which became effective in May 2018, can be applicable to foreign enterprises, which means its extraterritorial application. Moreover, the European Commission made a decision that Google had violated EU competition law for its anti-fragmentation agreements of Android with mobile manufacturers, and it imposed fines of 4.34 billion euros. The recent development of the European approaches to digital industries has brought worldwide attention. First of all, the current enforcement of the European Commission may impede the progress of the data economy that is the source of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Furthermore, the regulatory frameworks of the EU may also influence the development of regulatory regimes in the developing world, including Korea. In addition, the current investigation on Facebook by the German competition authority highlights a possible enforcement of the competition agency when an online platform violates data protection law. European competition law and data protection law lie at the heart of the European regulations on digital markets, and the development of the two bodies of law in the EU can influence the overall data economy in the world. It is, thus, timely to examine the recent development of the European laws and policies on online platform and other areas of the digital economy, thereby to help Korean policymakers develop the relevant provisions. Therefore, this article aims to discuss the case law and policies on the digital economy, focusing on the concept of the Digital Single Market, and to address the common goal of competition law and data protection law by looking at the historical progress of intersection between the two bodies of law.