SUPREME COURT REVERSES AND REMANDS IN NAVER VIDEO SEARCH ALGORITHM SELF-PREFERENCING CASE SUPREME COURT REVERSES AND REMANDS IN NAVER VIDEO SEARCH ALGORITHM SELF-PREFERENCING CASESUPREME COURT REVERSE…
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Write. 최고관리자
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Date. 2025.12.22
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Bae, Kim & Lee LLC (“BKL”) successfully represented NAVER Corporation (“NAVER”), Korea’s leading internet search and digital platform company, before the Supreme Court of Korea in a case concerning allegations that NAVER engaged in self-preferencing through its video search algorithm.
The Supreme Court reversed the portion of the lower court ruling that had upheld the Korea Fair Trade Commission’s (“KFTC”) finding of an unfair trade practice relating to additional ranking points awarded to videos displayed on the NAVER TV front page, and remanded the issue for further consideration. The Court otherwise affirmed the lower court’s decision rejecting the KFTC’s determination concerning NAVER’s internal sharing of algorithm-related information.
I. CASE OVERVIEW
Under Korean competition law, “unfair customer solicitation” is a type of unfair trade practice that occurs when a business induces customers through deceptive means. The KFTC found that NAVER engaged in such conduct in two ways. First, it alleged that NAVER, when modifying its video search algorithm, provided key attribute information relating to those modifications only to internal teams, and did not disclose the same information to external content providers. Second, the KFTC determined that NAVER granted additional ranking points to videos featured on the NAVER TV front page, asserting that this amounted to preferential treatment of NAVER’s own curated content.
On appeal, the Seoul High Court rejected the KFTC’s finding regarding discriminatory internal access to algorithm-related information, holding that the KFTC had failed to identify conduct that actually misled users. However, the court upheld the violation relating to the additional ranking points.
The Supreme Court affirmed the Seoul High Court’s conclusion on the algorithm-related information but reversed its ruling on the additional ranking points, finding that the statutory elements required to establish unfair customer solicitation had not been met.
[이 게시물은 최고관리자님에 의해 2025-12-22 22:26:14 Insights에서 복사 됨]
[이 게시물은 최고관리자님에 의해 2025-12-22 22:26:21 Insights에서 복사 됨]
The Supreme Court reversed the portion of the lower court ruling that had upheld the Korea Fair Trade Commission’s (“KFTC”) finding of an unfair trade practice relating to additional ranking points awarded to videos displayed on the NAVER TV front page, and remanded the issue for further consideration. The Court otherwise affirmed the lower court’s decision rejecting the KFTC’s determination concerning NAVER’s internal sharing of algorithm-related information.
I. CASE OVERVIEW
Under Korean competition law, “unfair customer solicitation” is a type of unfair trade practice that occurs when a business induces customers through deceptive means. The KFTC found that NAVER engaged in such conduct in two ways. First, it alleged that NAVER, when modifying its video search algorithm, provided key attribute information relating to those modifications only to internal teams, and did not disclose the same information to external content providers. Second, the KFTC determined that NAVER granted additional ranking points to videos featured on the NAVER TV front page, asserting that this amounted to preferential treatment of NAVER’s own curated content.
On appeal, the Seoul High Court rejected the KFTC’s finding regarding discriminatory internal access to algorithm-related information, holding that the KFTC had failed to identify conduct that actually misled users. However, the court upheld the violation relating to the additional ranking points.
The Supreme Court affirmed the Seoul High Court’s conclusion on the algorithm-related information but reversed its ruling on the additional ranking points, finding that the statutory elements required to establish unfair customer solicitation had not been met.
[이 게시물은 최고관리자님에 의해 2025-12-22 22:26:14 Insights에서 복사 됨]
[이 게시물은 최고관리자님에 의해 2025-12-22 22:26:21 Insights에서 복사 됨]