On September 10, 2019, Dr. Sung-Wook Joh took office as the 20th Chairperson of the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC).  Her inauguration came exactly a month after her nomination by President Moon.  Chairwoman Joh, who is a professor of finance at Seoul National University, is considered a leading academic expert on Korean conglomerate regulation and corporate governance reform and is expected to "complete the ongoing work” to lay down the institutional groundwork for achieving fair economy, including a comprehensive overhaul of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Law.  

Chairwoman Joh has a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University and previously served as a civilian member of the Economic Division of the Regulatory Reform Committee.  She has also worked on and is known for her expertise in econometric analysis and thus, we expect greater emphasis on econometric evidence in future KFTC investigations and hearings. 

Chairwoman Joh’s inaugural address given at the KFTC also shed light on her policy priorities and objectives, as summarized below: 

First, Chairwoman Joh will continue the KFTC’s emphasis on protecting smaller and “economically weak” competitors from unfair trade practices of enterprises with superior bargaining positions, carrying forward the "fair economy" policy of the current administration.  For this purpose, Chairwoman Joh called for continuing enforcement action by the KFTC in the areas of unfair trade practices by larger enterprises and facilitating more access to material market information by smaller enterprises through improved availability and transparency of the information.  

Second, the KFTC will look into enterprises that engage in affiliate transactions that unfairly support affiliates within an enterprise group and strictly regulate such behaviors.  Chairwoman Joh also emphasized the need to incentivize larger enterprises to provide more business opportunities to innovative, smaller enterprises to enable them to become a competitive market player. 

Third, with the arrival of the 4th Industrial Revolution, the KFTC will take a more proactive role in formulating an ecosystem in the market where innovations take place.  In this regard, Chairwoman Joh emphasized the KFTC’s role in facilitating innovations in the market by regulating unfair abuse of large-sized ICT enterprises in individual investigations, while carefully exploring possibilities of structural changes to the market.  She also noted, on the other hand, that she would carry this task out carefully, so that her agency would not negatively affect the innovative economic activities in dynamic industries.  

Lastly, the KFTC will prioritize monitoring industry activities that negatively affect consumers by actively enforcing sanctions on enterprises that violate its regulations while at the same time, developing ideas and methods to provide relief for consumers.   

Chairwoman Joh also called on her staff for transparency and professionalism in conducting their work, which can be interpreted as making internal efforts to abide by procedural due process in KFTC investigations and activities.