On April 29, 2024, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (“KFTC”) announced that it has finalized the amendments to its merger enforcement manual (the “Merger Review Guideline”; “기업결합 심사기준” in Korean), taking effect from May 1, 2024, to modernize the process of merger review and to better reflect certain features of the digital sector. Above all, the amendments are designed to fine-tune and balance the anti-competitive and efficiency-enhancing effects of mergers unique to the digital sector, whereby market competition is effectively protected while fostering innovation. The amendments, inter alia, introduces several changes to the KFTC’s approach to market definition, expands the list of factors to consider for competitive assessment, adds a new set of criteria to evaluate efficiency gains in mergers involving online platforms, and updates the eligibility criteria vis-à-vis simplified merger review.

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