Korean Competition Policy and the Stakes for the US-Korea Relationship

The Korean Fair Trade Commission’s antitrust enforcement actions against American companies have raised concerns about discrimination in Congress. The impartial enforcement of competition law is important not only to American innovators operating abroad but to Korean consumers who enjoy their products, Korean SMEs who use American digital platforms to scale their businesses, and to bilateral cooperation on AI and other emerging technologies.

What does a decade of KFTC enforcement activity actually reveal about how American firms fare relative to Korean and other foreign firms? What are the consequences for consumers, small businesses, and innovators on both sides of the Pacific? And what policy paths are open to Seoul and Washington, from procedural and enforcement reform to trade instruments, particularly given the possibility of new Korean antitrust legislation focusing on tech?

Join ITIF for a panel discussion with international experts on a forthcoming report analyzing a decade of previously uncompiled KFTC enforcement data, what its findings mean for U.S.–Korea economic relations, and how policymakers in both countries should respond.