공동행위 인가제도의 문제점 및 일괄면제제도 도입방안의 검토

Abstract

The Fair Trade Commission announced that it would proceed with the plan for the cartel exemption of 「Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act」(hereinafter ‘the Fair Trade Act’) on the joint research & development or joint technical cooperation, as a part of deregulation to activate the innovation competition, in the working plan in 2014. This approach planned by the Fair Trade Commission seems to benchmark and apply the Block Exemption system of EU Competition Law to joint research & development or joint technical cooperation instead of the current cartel approval system which is rarely used now, and to apply this system to the other kinds of cartel gradually by expanding it. Like this plan of the Fair Trade Commission, it is necessary to introduce Block Exemption system to our Fair Trade Act, which can provide the predictability to the business operators and act as a rule of action. In the case of introducing Block Exemption system to the Fair Trade Act, there are many advantages that the Fair Trade Commission may be free from the burden of work as it does not have to judge the illegality in advance for the individual cartels unlike the current cartel approval system, and the business operators can be guaranteed for the legal stability as Block Exemption system provides the criteria for judgment in advance about what cartel is illegal and what cartel is allowed. In addition, as such Block Exemption criteria may act as the judgement criteria of the illegality of cartel of the Fair Trade Commission later, the specified validity can be enhanced because it presents the judgment criteria of illegality and the market share limit which have unique characteristics of each field. When we introduce Block Exemption system to the Fair Trade Act, it is necessary to delete the provision of the Section 2 of Article 19 of the Fair Trade Act, which is the basis of the cartel approval system, and to provide the basis and the basic requirement of the Block Exemption system in the Fair Trade Act instead of that. In particular, it seems desirable to introduce this kind of system first of all, focusing on Joint research and development or Joint technical cooperaton which is expected to have the efficiency-enhancing effect and technological innovation. In this case, like the EU, it is necessary to define the detailed requirements and the considerations of Block Exemption such as the concept of each cartel, the criteria of market share, the criteria of restriction activity of the competition, and the reason of withdrawal and expiry, etc.