South Korea's Fair Trade Commission is considering changes to law or regulation after recent court decisions suspended field inspections challenged by companies including Coupang and Hanwha. FTC Chair Ju Byung-gi said the rulings had made it difficult for the regulator to carry out investigations that rely on company consent rather than the compulsory search powers used by police or prosecutors.
The immediate dispute concerns the FTC's ability to enter company premises and gather information during competition investigations. Courts recently granted requests to halt inspections in cases involving Coupang and Hanwha, according to Korean reporting. Ju said the agency would examine ways to close what he described as an avenue for companies to avoid investigations.
A dispute over how administrative investigations work
A change in the rules would affect both enforcement power and corporate procedural rights. The FTC investigates issues such as unfair trade practices, abuse of market power and collusion, but its field-inspection process does not operate under the same legal framework as a criminal search warrant. That difference is now at the center of a dispute over how much authority the commission should have before a case reaches a final administrative decision.
The commission's response is still at the review stage. Ju did not announce a completed bill or regulation, and the court decisions remain part of an evolving legal boundary between administrative investigation and judicial protection for companies. Any amendment would therefore need to specify when inspections can proceed, what obligations companies have to cooperate and how businesses can challenge investigative steps.
For companies, the outcome could change the cost and timing of contesting an FTC inquiry. For the regulator, it could determine whether field investigations remain a reliable way to secure evidence in complex competition cases. The coming legal proposals and court reasoning will show how Korea balances effective competition enforcement with limits on administrative investigative power.