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The Korea Communications Commission (KCC) has concluded that Google and Apple’s standards for user protection duties are not up to par. The reason for the low grades stems in part from their failure to submit documents for the KCC’s investigation. The KCC now plans to go to work on developing plans for disciplinary action.

In a plenary meeting on Dec. 12, the KCC voted to approve the findings of a 2018 assessment of user protection duties by telecommunications businesses. Performed in accordance with the Telecommunications Business Act for the prevention of damages to users and effective processing of complaint in connection with telecommunications services, the assessment focused on 31 businesses (23 including overlaps) in six service areas (mobile telephones, internet telephones, ultra-high-speed internet, discount telephones, portals, and app markets) in reflection of their number of users and the percentage of complaints concerning them.

Both Google and Apple received ratings of “inadequate” in the app market category, which was assessed for the first time this year. Apple received the lowest score out of all businesses at just over 530 points out of 1,000.

“In many cases, the basic assessment data concerning areas such as registered app search standards, user complaint analysis, and the handling of personal information by commissioned companies were either inadequately submitted or not submitted at all, with the explanation that these materials were ‘not possessed for South Korea,’” the KCC said.

“Fee incurrence notifications, payer identity confirmation procedures, and payment method diversity were all lacking,” it added.

Google also received an “inadequate” rating in the portal category, where Naver earned a “very good” rating and Nate and Daum earned ratings of “good.”

During the Dec. 12 meeting, commission members blasted Google and Apple for their unwillingness to cooperate with the KCC investigation.

“For Google and Apple not to cooperate with the user protection duty assessment shows both disregard for the KCC and disregard for South Korean service users,” said standing committee member Ko Sam-seok.

“We need to find some way of making them pay for failing to even submit data or develop some feasible means of regulation,” Ko insisted.

Commission chair Lee Hyo-seong said, “We need to make the assessment findings public and impress upon the public how these businesses have neglected their social responsibility.”

In contrast with the global businesses, South Korea’s four telecommunications companies mostly earned ratings in the “very good” to “excellent” range. “Excellent” ratings went to SK in the mobile phone category; LGU+, SK Broadband (SKB), and KT in the internet phone category; and SKB, SK, KT, and LGU+ in the ultra-high-speed internet category.

The detailed assessment findings on user protection duties are to be provided to the businesses in question to encourage them to independently address any adequacies and help improving conditions in terms of user rights and interests. To ensure that telecommunications communications businesses take a more active interest in user protection duties, a decision was also made to reduce 2019 penalties for violations of the Telecommunications Act by up to 30% of businesses receiving “excellent” ratings and 20% for those with “very good” ratings.

The KCC further plans to consider improvements for when it formulates future assessment plans to telecommunications businesses’ user protection duties, including an increase in the scope of businesses assessed, strong assessments of global businesses, and increased incentives for businesses with good ratings.

“As we saw with the recent fire in a KT cable tunnel, cable and wireless communications-based services are growing and their effects on society are increasing by the day, which means the negative impact on users when a problem arises with communications services is also increasing,” Lee said.

“Going ahead, we plan to step up our assessments of user protection duties, working to ensure that telecommunications businesses provide services from a more user-centered perspective to improve the rights and interests of users,” he added.

By Park Tae-woo, staff reporter

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