兩面市場理論과 韓國 競爭法上 役割에 대한 硏究 -구글의 더블클릭 인수 사건을 포함하여-

Abstract

Two-Sided Market Theory is under development from legal perspective. Two-Sided Market Theory has some difference from its Industrial Organization's perspective. The success of the antitrust enforcement agencies owes much to the way decision-makers in those institutions are bale to interact with economists. Courts have done through judges learn from the experts in their court room, economic articles cited by the litigant, and the economic reasoning embedded in the rules that they employ. From this point of view, Korea Fair Trade Commission's application of the Two-Sided Market Theory to the internet portal case in May 2008 including but not limited to NHN is a noticeable one because the Two-Sided Market Theory in the competition law's point of view is not that mature in its application in a sense. In this article Two-Sided Market Theory theory is explained with the concept of platform. A number of cases such as Credit Card, Internet Portal, Date Club, Newspapers are cited for the explanation of the Two-Sided Market Theory. Comparing to the application of traditional rules and theories to the competition law, the application of two sided market in Korea may expand the relevant market defined for the application of abuse of market dominant company. Traditional methods for evaluating mergers between single-sided firms can lead to erroneous conclusions when mergers involves two sided or multi-sided market, because the traditional theories will defined the market much narrower than that when Two-Sided Market Theory is to be applied. whereas the two-sided market will make the merger test's result somewhat different. We now have to turn our attention to the new theory and evaluate it whether that theory is suitable to Korean Competition law system or not. We are on the very verge of a new start for the definition of relevant market under the context of abuse of market dominance and merger control.