South Korea’s top competition authority is turning its attention to the country’s booming data industry, launching a broad market survey into how companies collect, share, and profit from consumer information in the digital age.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced on Thursday that it has begun a fact-finding survey of the data sector, focusing on transaction structures and competitive dynamics. The move comes amid growing global concern that control over data is becoming a key lever for market dominance in the digital economy.
“Data is no longer just a byproduct of online activity — it’s a crucial asset that fuels everything from AI development to targeted ads,” said the KFTC. “But with its growing importance, risks to competition and consumer rights are rising.”
The KFTC’s probe targets major domestic and international players operating in seven sectors: online advertising, social media, e-commerce, search engines, messaging services, app stores, and online video platforms. These companies have been asked to provide detailed information on how they collect, store, and use data, as well as their business practices and any experiences with unfair competition.
This latest move follows the KFTC’s 2024 market study on generative AI and reflects a broader push by regulators worldwide to rein in anti-competitive behavior in the digital space. In recent years, the KFTC fined Kakao Mobility for pressuring rival taxi operators to hand over trade secrets. Meanwhile, in Europe, the European Commission sanctioned Meta in April over its controversial “Pay or Consent” data policy.
The KFTC said it consulted academics and industry experts to define the scope of the survey and plans to publish a report on its findings later this year. The goal is to uncover harmful practices like data hoarding by dominant firms, denial of access to key datasets, or exploitative data collection that could undermine both fair competition and consumer welfare.
“This survey is about making sure that innovation doesn’t come at the cost of fairness,” the KFTC said. “We want digital markets where companies compete on a level playing field — not where a handful of players win just because they control the most data.”
The results will shape future policy, and potentially enforcement actions, as Korea works to balance tech-driven growth with the need to protect consumers and smaller players in the market.
