Apple’s outlet in Gangnam, southern Seoul. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, Dec. 12 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s antitrust regulator called Monday for Apple Inc. to faithfully implement its projects worth 100 billion won (US$763 million) to support local developers as part of a deal to address the company’s alleged violation of competition law.
Apple kicked off an application developers’ academy in South Korea after the U.S. tech giant’s South Korean unit offered a set of projects in response to its alleged fair trade violations.
Apple also kicked off a research and development center for small and medium-sized firms.
South Korean law allows a company accused of anti-competitive practices to state a correction scheme without deliberating whether those practices violate the country’s competition act.
The move is aimed at speedily resolving the case and remedying the damage to consumers without resorting to legal means.
Apple was accused of requiring the country’s three mobile operators to pay the cost of advertisements for its iPhones.
“The policy centers on overcoming limits of corrective measures focusing only on punishments,” FTC Vice Chairperson Yoon Su-hyun said during the graduation ceremony of the application developers’ academy.
“We believe that the Apple developer academy will play a significant role in promoting competition and innovation in the app market, as intended by the policy,” he added.
(Yonhap)
