South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission closes consultation on domestic agent rules for foreign platforms
New e-commerce enforcement rules proposed by the Fair Trade Commission would require some overseas businesses to designate a domestic agent.
South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission closes its public consultation on proposed amendments to the Enforcement Decree of the Act on Consumer Protection in Electronic Commerce, including new rules on domestic agents for certain overseas businesses.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, an overseas business without an address or place of business in South Korea would be required to designate a domestic agent if it meets at least one of three criteria: sales in the previous year exceeding ₩1 trillion, an average of more than 1 million domestic consumers accessing the cyber mall each month in the three months immediately preceding the end of the previous year, or a Fair Trade Commission request to submit reports and materials.
The proposed rules would also require overseas businesses, once a domestic agent is designated, to submit the agent’s name, address, telephone number, and email address to the Fair Trade Commission in writing without delay and to disclose that information on the first screen of the cyber mall they operate.
The Fair Trade Commission also says the amendments would establish business suspension standards for violations of the domestic agent obligation. According to the proposal, a first violation would lead to a three-month business suspension, a second violation to six months, and a third violation to 12 months.
In the same legislative notice, the Fair Trade Commission also proposed reducing the scope of identity information that platforms facilitating person-to-person transactions must verify for individual sellers, from five items to two: telephone number and email address.
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