Study on Regulation of Vertical Cartels under the Korea Anti-Monopoly and Fair Trade Act

The currently debated issue of regulating unilateral conducts under the Korea Anti-Monopoly and Fair Trade Act (the KAFTA or the Act) is closely related to the issue of regulating vertical cartels under the Act. So far, the law enforcement against the improper cartels under the Act by the Korea Fair Trade Commission has focused solely upon horizontal agreements. Such law enforcement was presumably affected by the law enforcement against improper restraints under the Japan by the Japan Fair Trade Commission. However, this does not have any statutory ground in the KAFTA nor competition policy justifications. Such law enforcement approach to improper cartels under the Act may make vague the fundamental distinction between concerted conducts and unilateral conducts and cause serious problems in the competition law regulatory system under the Act. It may make the regulation of improper cartels incomplete and cause unnecessary confusion on regulating unilateral conducts under the Act. Regulating vertical cartels is one of the urgent tasks not only for improving law enforcement against improper cartels under the Act, but also for having the overall competition law regulatory system more advanced