{"id":333412,"date":"2025-08-10T15:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/333412\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T15:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:03:10","slug":"despite-trade-deal-tensions-linger-with-korea-over-dma-inspired-regulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/333412\/","title":{"rendered":"Despite Trade Deal, Tensions Linger With Korea Over DMA-Inspired Regulation"},"content":{"rendered":"

The European Union\u2019s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has lately been a irritant in U.S.-EU relations that nearly derailed trade talks between Washington and Brussels. But like the GDPR before it, the DMA is exhibiting symptoms of the Brussels\u2019 Effect that could increase tensions with non-European\u00a0 as well, according to a report by Tech Policy Press<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In December 2023, the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) proposed the Platform Competition Promotion Act (PCPA), which was largely modeled on the DMA. Like the DMA, it would impose \u201cex ante\u201d conduct restrictions on digital platforms that meet certain user and market share thresholds.<\/p>\n

The proposal drew the ire of U.S. technology companies, including Meta, Apple, Microsoft, and Google, as well as that of the U.S. Congress, the Chamber of Progress, and the Trump administration, however. In response, the KFTC issued new guidelines<\/a> in September 2024 that eliminated the ex ante restrictions but retained the thresholds that could subject platforms to penalties of actions deemed to be an \u201cabuse of market dominance.\u201d Those include self-preferencing, exclusive bundling, and refusing to share user or business data with competitors.<\/p>\n

Despite the updated guidelines, members of the House Judiciary Committee sent a formal letter<\/a> to the KFTC last month expressing concern that \u201cthe KFTC\u2019s proposed legislation may be used to improperly target U.S. businesses,\u201d a similar complaint the Trump administration has expressed over the DMA. The letter asked for a briefing on the law\u2019s intent and implementation by August 7. At press time, it was unclear whether that briefing had occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cKorea seems poised to follow in Europe\u2019s footsteps, advancing legislation modeled directly on the DMA,\u201d the letter read. The law \u201cwould impose prohibitive and overly burdensome regulatory obligations like those contained in the DMA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also like the DMA, the PCPA became embroiled in trade talks between Washington and Seoul. \u00a0Rep. Carol Miller\u00a0(R-WV) introduced the U.S.-Republic of Korea Digital Trade Enforcement Act in September 2024 which called for the U.S. to take retaliatory measures should Korea follow through with its proposed regulation. That bill died with the last Congress but in April U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer warned the U.S. would not permit \u201cthe European Union, or Korea, or any other jurisdiction [to] set the rules for digital trade.\u201d<\/p>\n

As with the recent framework trade agreement between the U.S. and EU, however, U.S. concerns over the PCPA were not addressed in the U.S.-Korea agreement reached last month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The European Union\u2019s Digital Markets Act (DMA) has lately been a irritant in U.S.-EU relations that nearly derailed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[2000,299,5187,1699],"class_list":{"0":"post-333412","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-european","11":"tag-european-union"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115005084379965114","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}