판례에 비추어 본 거래상 지위남용 규제의 법리

Abstract

Abuse of transactional position as a kind of the unfair business transaction under the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act(hereinafter, ‘MRFTA’) is considered one of the most unique aspects among the provisions of the MRFTA. The provision covers wide range of unfair practices, and sometimes it intervenes into disputes between private undertakings without any evidence of anti-competitiveness. For such intervention, however, there are some controversies on the role of the provision and regulation. Actually this sort of approach is quite rare and exceptional in field of competition law, and the japanese competition law would be the only similar legislation. Because of that characteristics, however, there are lots of judicial precedents in that area and the competition case laws in Korea have been formed through such precedents. And importance of this regulation is getting bigger in recent political environment around so called ‘economic democracy’. In this context, the paper examines existing judicial cases in the area of abuse of transactional position in Korea and makes some analysis on role and limitation of this regulation with an angle of the competition law and civil law. As a conclusion, it suggests some ideas and legislative enhancements to find an appropriate role of the current provision under basis of competition jurisprudence.