배출권거래제에서의 부당내부거래 규제 가능성에 대한 연구

The Emission Trading Scheme is one of the environmental policies proposed as a long-term reduction plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in response to climate change. Since expiration of the primary planning period at the end of 2017, companies that had previously been granted free chartering, are burdened to purchase a portion of their emissions credits. At the same time, supply and demand imbalances exist due to companies that hold onto the emission permits or consider it as a means of speculation, in anticipation of permit price increases. Therefore, when a company or its subsidiary company does not have sufficient emission permits, it often prefer to trade permits with their own subsidiary companies rather than with third parties. However, not all intra-group tradings have positive effects. It may be used as a means of expedient succession of management rights, or provide concentrated economic power to a small number of companies. The results of the statistical analysis on the intra-group trading behavior show that the price in the ‘intra-group negotiated trading’ is 7% higher than the non- negotiated trading, and it is likely to show a significant difference from the normal price. In other words, unfair intra-group trading within the emission trading scheme may be applied to Fair Trade Act and be concluded unlawful should it not conform with all the necessary fair trade requirements. In order to achieve the ultimate goal of the emission trading scheme, which is to ‘efficiently achieve GHG reduction through the market mechanism’, this paper analyzes the emission trading scheme with legal and economic aspects of unfair intra-group trading practices, and whether such practices can be subject to regulations under the Fair Trade Act.