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South Korea: Tech giants worry over new antitrust enforcer

By  |  September 5, 2019

South Korea’s incoming competition chief Joh Sung-wook appears to have taken a leaf out of European counterpart Margrethe Vestager’s book as she sets her sights on tech giants including Google, Facebook, and Amazon, reported Nikkei. 

In her first media appearance since President Moon Jae-in nominated her to lead South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission, Joh identified reducing data monopolies and enforcing better protections for customer information as two of her biggest priorities.

“We will analyze unfair activities of leading companies in the ICT sector, such as Google, Apple and Naver, which we are currently investigating,” Joh told reporters in Seoul last week.

Joh’s comments signal a shift in focus for the competition watchdog after outgoing commissioner Kim Sang-jo, known as the “chaebol sniper,” spent the last few years targeting the country’s powerful family-run conglomerates.

Full Content: Asia Nikkei

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