1.

Remedy Power Imbalances Between Large and Small Enterprises

The KFTC announced concrete measures under the overarching principle of ensuring fair compensation for SMEs and small business owners, strengthening detection of unfair practices in power‑imbalanced (“Gap-Eul”) relationships, and boosting the bargaining power of weaker parties to promote mutually beneficial growth.
 

• Subcontracting

• Franchising

• Distribution

The KFTC will also reinforce monitoring of unfair practices in power-imbalanced (“Gap-Eul”) sectors through an anonymous reporting center and specialized investigation teams. To strengthen the bargaining power of SMEs and small business owners, the KFTC plans to redesign the competition law framework to secure collective action rights—including exemptions from cartel provisions—and to grant organization rights to franchisees, suppliers, and dealers.
 

2.

Promote Fair Competition in Sectors Closely Related to People’s Livelihoods
 
To correct unfair practices that increase financial burden for the public, the KFTC will carry out focused inspections of collusion in four areas closely related to people’s livelihoods—food, education, construction, and energy. The KFTC will actively consider introducing stronger enforcement tools, such as compulsory investigative powers and price re-determination orders, to improve the effectiveness of investigations and sanctions. For product categories closely tied to daily life (e.g., ice cream, cooking oil, movie theaters, OTT streaming services, agricultural products, alcoholic beverages, and AI‑enabled industries), the KFTC will carry out in‑depth analyses of monopolistic distribution structures, the drivers of high prices, and barriers to market entry, with a view to removing competition‑restricting regulations.

In order to enhance effectiveness of remedies for public harm, the KFTC also plans to promote consumer class actions, expand powers to compel submission of documents, and broaden private parties’ access to injunctive relief. It will actively use alternative dispute‑resolution mechanisms—such as promoting mediation through enactment of a Fair Trade Dispute Mediation Act—and strengthen the role of the Korea Consumer Agency to provide faster relief. The KFTC also announced plans to establish a relief fund, financed by administrative fines it levies, to facilitate prompt and effective recovery for consumers and SMEs.

Finally, the KFTC will step up regulation in everyday sectors—such as culture events, wedding halls, restaurants, fitness, AI products, and funeral services—by correcting unfair contract terms, creating and revising standard contracts, policing dark‑pattern tactics, and cracking down on misleading labeling and advertising to prevent consumer harm and protect rights. The Commission will actively tackle deceptive practices in digital markets (including AI‑driven false or exaggerated advertising and distorted online price displays) and strengthen direct platform responsibility to better protect consumers who use online platforms.
 

3.

Foster an Innovation Ecosystem in Digital Markets

The KFTC will actively monitor, investigate, and remedy abuses of market power in the digital sector (including mobile and digital infrastructure, AI and cloud services, and delivery and driver‑for‑hire app sectors). To strengthen transaction stability and transparency between platforms and the merchants that operate on those platforms, the KFTC will solicit inputs from domestic and international stakeholders and liaise with the National Assembly to support legislative discussions on the digital market.

Regarding merger review, the KFTC will actively assess transactions by taking into account the characteristics of innovative industries such as big tech and virtual‑asset platforms. It will promptly and thoroughly review mergers necessary for industrial restructuring in sectors such as petrochemicals and steel, and will continue to rigorously oversee compliance with any corrective measures imposed in merger cases.
 

4.

Strengthen Governance of Large Business Groups and Reform Incentive Systems

The KFTC will respond strictly to unfair intra‑group transactions and failures to disclose affiliated companies. The KFTC announced measures to strengthen monitoring and enforcement against self-dealing, such as (i) revising the standards for sanctions so that administrative fines can be imposed in proportion to unjust enrichment generated from self‑dealing, (ii) establishing statutory grounds for imposing fines for acts designed to evade regulation, and (iii) excluding treasury shares when determining the shareholding ratio subject to regulation on self-dealing.

Meanwhile, to ensure that the special measures under the National High-Tech Strategic Industry Act (enacted to boost investment in high-tech strategic and venture industries) do not lead to indiscriminate expansion of corporate control, the KFTC plans to relax required ownership ratios for third-tier subsidiaries, subject to certain conditions and commitments to regional investment, permit financial leasing activities, and ease limits on external and overseas investment proportions to enable expanded venture investing by non-financial holding companies’ corporate venture capital (CVC) units and to promote strategic investment in globally promising technologies.