Naver’s Lee Hae-jin to be summoned to National Assembly audit

Oct 17, 2022, 09:07 am

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Naver’s Global Investment Officer (GIO) Lee Hae-jin / Source: Yonhap

AsiaToday reporter Lee Wook-jae

The National Assembly’s Political Affairs Committee selected Naver’s Global Investment Officer (GIO) Lee Hae-jin as a witness for an upcoming National Assembly audit. Lee is required to attend the non-financial field comprehensive audit scheduled on Friday.

According to the National Assembly on Friday, the political affairs committee selected a total of 10 people including Lee as witnesses of the national assembly audit.

The reason for requesting for a witness is Lee is related to the detailed execution details of the SME win-win support project among Naver’s implementation of the consent resolution.

Previously, People Power Party (PPP) lawmaker Choi Seung-jae, who pointed out the problem of Naver’s implementation of the consent resolution, sent a letter to the members of the political affairs committee, stating that the GIO should be summoned as a witness.

Rep. Choi has pointed out that Naver did not properly carry out its implementation even after being exonerated by the consent resolution.

In the letter, Rep. Choi said, “The purpose of the consent resolution system is to promptly close the case without determining whether the business operator has violated the law if the business operator proposes a reasonable corrective measure to improve the competition-restricted state and trade order in a more flexible and reasonable way. However, the Fair Trade Commission’s implementation check on the corrective measures proposed by the business operator is very insufficient.”

“The FTC did not check the implementation of the consent resolution in line with its purpose. The FTC was unable to secure implementation related data,” he pointed out.

“Companies have abused this and used consent resolution as an excuse for unfair acts,” Rep. Choi said. “Naver and Daum, the first operators of the consent resolution, proposed and implemented a project to improve consumer welfare and support related businesses. However, when I checked the details of the execution, they carried out the project to expand their business and strengthen their competitiveness. It does not fit the purpose of the resolution.”

Rep. Choi also stressed the need of adopting Lee as a witness by introducing Lee’s remarks when Naver applied for a consent resolution. “I wanted to hear about the facts from him by summoning him as a witness, who is the party to the consent decision, about his previous remarks that Naver would promote win-win cooperation and carry out various businesses for the welfare of consumers. However, I could not properly hear about the allegations and the facts because of the limitation.”

“We should examine closely in the remaining national assembly audits by summoning witnesses. We should not forget it,” he said.

The question on the implementation of the consent resolution pointed out by Rep. Choi was also held at the Political Affairs Committee’s Fair Trade Commission parliamentary audit on Oct. 7. By then, Kakao CEOs Hong Eun-taek and Namgoong Hoon attended the audit, however GIO Lee and former and incumbent key figures of Naver did not attend the audit as witnesses.

#Naver #Lee Hae-jin #National Assembly