South Korean antitrust chief lays out four-pronged 2026 enforcement push in New Year speech
( January 1, 2026, 02:00 GMT | Official Statement) -- MLex Summary: South Korea’s antitrust chief Ju Biung-ghi said the Korea Fair Trade Commission will concentrate its 2026 work on four policy tracks, starting with rebalancing bargaining power by tightening rules so subcontractors, franchisees and suppliers are paid fairly and by stepping up crackdowns on technology theft. He said in his New Year's address the agency will also focus cartel enforcement on four “livelihood” sectors — food, education, construction and energy— while pushing to strengthen deterrence by raising financial penalties to “advanced economy” levels and considering fines or surcharges for refusing to cooperate with investigations. Ju said the regulator will intensify oversight of dominance abuses and unfair conduct in digital platform markets and support legislative efforts to improve transparency and stability between platforms. He added the watchdog will tighten discipline of chaebol misconduct including unfair internal transactions and unfair support so large groups focus on innovation, backed by more realistic sanctions that scale with unjust gains.Ju's New Year's speech, in Korean, is attached....
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