Countdown of Google, Apple, Ali Penalty Enforcement
||2026.04.07
As the Korea Communications Commission (KCC) has established a normal operating system six months after its launch, it is expected that major issues that have been tied up for a long time will begin in earnest. A series of major pending issues are pending, including the enactment of a follow-up enforcement decree to abolish the Terminal Distribution Act, the enforcement of fines for Google and Apple, and corrective measures for AliExpress. The calculation method of related companies has become complicated.
According to related industries on the 6th, the U.S. Communications Commission plans to hold a general meeting soon and vote on agendas that have not been resolved one after another.
The U.S.-North Korea Communications Commission can hold a plenary session only when at least four of the seven members are present. However, since its inauguration on Oct. 1 last year, only two members have been appointed, making the plenary session impossible. When President Lee Jae-myung appointed and commissioned four additional members on March 31, the meeting finally became a ‘six-member system’ that meets the requirements for the meeting.
If the plenary session is held, the U.S.-based Communications Commission is expected to come up with follow-up measures on the law on improving the distribution structure of mobile terminal devices. This is an issue that will affect mobile carriers such as SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus.
With the abolition of the Terminal Distribution Control Act in July last year, the upper limit on subsidies that telecommunication companies can provide has disappeared. At the same time, with the revision of the Telecommunication Business Act, a new clause has been added that the government should not pay unduly discriminatory subsidies due to the address, age, and disability of subscribers. However, the criteria for distinguishing unfair discrimination from legitimate discrimination have been delegated to the enforcement ordinance.
The enactment of the enforcement ordinance continued to be delayed as the US-Korea Communications Commission failed to function properly. In the meantime, there has been confusion in the market, with competition for subsidies between telecommunications companies overheating and discrimination against subsidies among users. An industry official said, “If the US-Korea Communications Commission holds a general meeting and decides on an agenda related to the abolition of the Terminal Distribution Act, it will help stabilize the market.”
In addition to the follow-up measures to the Tong Tong Act, several corporate-related agendas are expected to be dealt with one after another. The U.S. Communications Commission plans to actually execute Google and Apple, which have been fined for the controversy over forced in-app payments. The KCC, the predecessor of the committee, decided to levy fines of 47.5 billion won on Google and 20.5 billion won on Apple in October 2023, claiming that Google and Apple violated the Telecommunications Business Act by forcing certain payment methods (in-app payment). However, due to the prolonged absence of the committee, the committee was not executed.
A resolution on the corrective action plan for AliExpress is also expected to be made soon. The KCC said in October 2024, “It was confirmed that AliExpress induced payment by paying without informing users of important information,” adding, “The committee will decide on the scale of the corrective order and penalty after a resolution. However, the process has not been processed for more than a year and a half.
An official from the U.S. National Assembly said, “The schedule for the general meeting has not yet been confirmed as the National Assembly schedule remains on April 7.” “There is no order of agenda to be resolved when the general meeting is held, and we plan to vote on some agenda items.”
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