South Korea's Fair Trade Commission will allow Apple to draw up plans to fix anti-competitive behavior

Apple Store Seoul
Apple Store Seoul (Image credit: Apple)

What you need to know

  • South Korea's Fair Trade Commission will allow Apple to make plans to correct its business practices.
  • Apple has been accused of anti-competitive behavior in the country.
  • Apple's measures must be approved by the FTC if they are to satisfy the regulator.

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that it will allow Apple to set out measures that will help it deal with the anti-competitive practices it is being accused of in the country. If the measures are approved, Apple will no longer face the repercussions of potentially having violated competition laws.

The accusations appear to stem from Apple's stance that carrier partners much pay for local advertising and all warranty service for iPhones. Now, Apple is thought to be reconsidering that according to a Korea Herald report.

As part of corrective measures, Apple Korea has proposed holding consultations with South Korean mobile phone carriers to reduce their burden and share the cost related to advertisements.Apple Korea is accused of having required SK Telecom Co., KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp. to pay the cost of television advertisements and warranty service for its iPhones.

Apple is also putting its hand in its pocket to create a new fund that is designed to financially assist all parties, including those buying Apple's iPhones in South Korea.

Predictably, despite its plans Apple believes that it has done no wrong and said as much in a statement.

"We don't believe we have done anything wrong but are happy to put this process behind us so we can focus on doing even more for our customers and communities," Apple Korea said in a statement. (Yonhap)

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.