미디어 산업에서 M&A 인가의 쟁점과 개선방향

Abstract

In the media industry, most of them are entering the market under license regulations due to the necessity of the network, the scarcity of the frequency, etc. Therefore, in the case of mergers and acquisitions of the media industry, government can not help but keep an eye on the impact of market competition and public interest and manage them. On the other hand, it is the unique competence of the general competition authorities to examine competition restrictions on mergers and acquisitions. There may be overlapping or conflict of authority between the specialized regulatory body and the general competition authorities for the same mergers and acquisitions. Accordingly, there are several characteristics of the media industry M&A regulation as follows. First, the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) are involved. Second, standards and procedures are applied in accordance with a number of laws including the Monopoly Regulation Act, Telecommunications Business Act and Broadcasting Act. Therefore, in M&A regulation of the media industry cooperative administrative performance between regulatory agencies and harmonious interpretation of law without inconsistency between the plural statutes are important. The concrete direction of improvement is as follows. First, considering burden of the enterprise due to the overlapping and dualization of the approval process, it is necessary to examine the direction of unifying the window to the Ministry of Science and ICT by using the consultation clause in the Telecommunications Business Act. In other words, the examination of the business combination in the media industry is carried out only by the Ministry of Science and ICT, but it will listen only to whether the competition is restricted from the Korea Fair Trade Commission. Second, it is necessary to specify the criteria of competition limitation and public interest examination. First of all, it is necessary to introduce competition restriction examination criteria in broadcasting law. However, it is necessary to consider a slight difference between terrestrial broadcasting and pay-TV broadcasting. Competition limitations of satellite, cable and IPTV have a strong industrial and economic meaning. However, competition limitation of terrestrial broadcasters is involved to the monopolization of the broadcasting market, which suggests that certain operators are over-influencing the broadcasting market and monopolizing public opinion. Lastly, the consent rights of the KCC have characteristics of a political compromise in order to preserve some of the regulatory powers of paid broadcasting in the KCC as a result of the reorganization of the government in 2008. Therefore, in principle, preliminary consent as a due process requirement, which acts as a substantive final examination, does not conform to the principle of allocation of authority. It seems reasonable to revise it to the extent of consultation.