Market Definition, Antitrust Error, and Digital Platforms in Korean Competition Law and Policy

This article addressed the problems of market definition, antitrust error, and digital platforms in Korean competition law and policy. As sound economic analysis is critical in dealing with antitrust cases, economic theories must be tested when those come to the courtroom. For a long time, on the other hand, populist politicians as well as anti-capitalists have intentionally created irrational fear of large-scale firms in South Korea. They have also generated imaginary risk of bigness. Even when the relevant market is defined properly, a false-positive error will occur if we are captured by imaginary risk perception. Conversely, even if the relevant market is defined improperly, a false-positive error will not occur if our decision is based on sound, reliable fact-based analysis. For a long time, large firms have been treated as witches by populist politicians and extreme egalitarians in Korea. Big digital platforms are becoming today’s new witches. While the full-blown rule of reason prohibits witch-hunt, new ambitious hunters are against the conventional rule because they believe that AI and big data are witchcraft for real. There are a lot of criticisms on data monopoly as if it really does exist. However, data monopoly does not exist. In this regard, data monopoly can be called a phantom, imaginary risk. We should note that imaginary risk perception may subvert the real world. To protect free and fair competition, fact-based analysis must prevail over imaginary risk perception and fake economic analysis