온라인 여행사(OTA) 기업결합의 해악이론에 관한 연구 - 유럽연합 집행위원회의 심사사례를 중심으로 -

Among digital markets, the online travel agency (OTA) market has rapidly moved from offline to online platforms, and global OTAs have grown in scope and scale through mergers and acquisitions of related services. This market is complexly structured with a wide range of participants and is highly dynamic, with the market often being reorganised in a short period of time depending on factors outside the market. The European Commission has been accumulating cases of OTA merger reviews since the 2010s, and the recent Booking/eTraveli case, which prohibited the merger on the basis of ecosystem harm theory, is notable for its extensive assessment of potential competition harm to related markets and ecosystems that are structurally connected to relevant market. Developments in theory of harm, such as ecosystem harm theory, are emerging as new criteria for merger review that take into account the special circumstances of digital markets. It is important for Korean competition authorities to establish practical review criteria tailored to market ecosystem through various analyses based on an understanding of the characteristics of the domestic OTA market. Therefore, this paper introduces major cases of OTA merger review by the European Commission and discusses focused on the theory of harm and suggests implications for domestic application.