On May 20, 2020, the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee (the “Committee”) decided not to proceed with a proposed amendment to the Framework Act on Broadcasting Communications Development (the “Broadcasting Communications Act”) that would have increased obligations on “data center operators” by including them within the scope of “major broadcasting communications service providers” (the “Proposed Amendment”). 

Previously, we had noted that the Proposed Amendment would impose on data center operators an obligation to implement plans to manage “broadcast communication disasters” (natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes and social disasters such as fires or infectious diseases that affect broadcast communication facilities).  There had also been discussions that such data center operators could include cloud service providers with owned or leased servers in Korea.  

In rejecting the Proposed Amendment, the Committee found that (i) the Proposed Amendment would overlap with certain provisions of the Network Act, and (ii) it would not be appropriate to regulate such data center operators under the same regulatory regime as broadcasting communications service providers (such as broadcast television networks and radio stations). 

However, the Committee did acknowledge the need to impose certain broadcast communication disaster-related obligations upon data center operators, so there may be new efforts to amend the Broadcasting Communications Act or the Network Act under the newly elected 21^st National Assembly (term beginning as of May 30, 2020).