Republic of Korea: Introduced Act on Online Platform User Protection (Bill no. 2106369)

On 11 December 2020, the Act on Online Platform User Protection (Bill no. 2106369) was introduced in the National Assembly of South Korea. The Bill would establish obligations for “large-scale online platforms” regarding their quality of service to protect business users from unfair practices. The user, transaction and revenue thresholds to be classified as "large-scale online platform” would be established by Presidential Decree. In particular, the Bill would require “large-scale online platforms” to implement a complaint mechanism and establish guidelines for the handling of complaints raised by users. Furthermore, the Bill would require platforms to notify users of their intent to limit or suspend services or change or terminate a contract. Moreover, the Bill would prohibit platforms from rejecting, delaying or limiting service without justifiable reasons and would require platforms to establish terms and conditions for each online platform service they provide and report it to the Korea Communications Commission. Finally, the Bill would require platforms to share the data generated by business users upon request and specifies that the types of data that the users would have the right to access would be established through a Presidential Decree.