Naver fined $144,000 for boxing Kakao out of real estate market

Naver’s headquarters in Seongnam, Gyeonggi, is pictured on Feb. 7. [YONHAP]

 
A Seoul court fined Naver 200 million won ($144,000) on Thursday for violating fair trade laws by preventing rival Kakao from entering the real estate listings market.
 
The presiding judge at the Seoul Central District Court said the court recognized Naver’s violation of the Fair Trade Act.
 
“Naver strengthened its dominant market position by requiring partner real estate companies to block cooperation with potential competitors,” the judge said. “This significantly restricted business opportunities for real estate information providers and had major social consequences.”
 
In February 2015, after Kakao approached Naver’s real estate partners to pitch a similar business model, Naver added a clause to its renewal contracts requiring partners “not to provide real estate listings shared with Naver to any third parties.” Critics said the move shut Kakao out of the market.
 
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) concluded in December 2020 that Naver’s actions violated the Fair Trade Act and ordered corrective measures along with a 1.03 billion won fine. The Ministry of SMEs and Startups later exercised its right to request a criminal complaint in November 2021, and prosecutors indicted Naver in September 2022.
 
Naver has separately filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to overturn the FTC fine. The case is ongoing at the Seoul High Court.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY JEONG JAE-HONG [[email protected]]