Fair Trade Commission judges that Korean Bar Association limited consumer choice

Infringement of free competition among lawyers
Korean Bar Association “Not an advertisement, but a licensed broker”

The reason why the Fair Trade Commission sanctioned the Korean Bar Association (Bar Association), etc., which prohibited its lawyers from using the legal platform Rotalk, is because it judged that the Bar Association’s actions went beyond the Lawyer’s Law and unfairly restricted lawyers’ competition and consumers’ right to choose. .

According to the results of the investigation by the Fair Trade Commission on the 23rd, the Korean Bar Association enacted and revised the Lawyer Advertising Regulations and Lawyers Code of Ethics in May 2021 to regulate the use of legal platforms, and signed up for Rotalk four times from August to October 2021. 1,440 lawyers were asked to submit statements of explanation.

On August 24 of the same year, the Ministry of Justice issued an authoritative interpretation of the Attorney Act stating that ‘Rotalk service does not violate the Lawyer’s Act’, but even after that, it did not bend the disciplinary policy of Rotalk users, and in October of last year, 9 people were punished with a maximum fine of 3 million won. Decided.

The Seoul District Bar Association (Seoul Bar Association) sent official letters to members in May and July 2021, before the enforcement of the revised lawyer advertisement regulations, requesting them to withdraw from legal platforms such as Rotalk.

In this case, one of the issues was whether Rotalk was a platform for introducing and arranging specific lawyers or an advertising platform. The Attorney-at-Law Act prohibits acts of introducing, arranging, or luring a party or other related person to a specific lawyer or his/her office staff in exchange for money, valuables, entertainment, or other benefits.

During the Fair Trade Commission review, the Korean Bar Association argued that Rotalk is more like a licensed broker arranging transactions than simply an advertising platform. On the other hand, the Fair Trade Commission is a brokerage platform that introduces and arranges specific lawyers because Rotalk exposes lawyers who paid 250,000 to 500,000 won per month in advertising fees at the top of the search engine rather than free lawyers, but does not receive fees for legal consultation and case handling. I saw that this is not

In addition, the Fair Trade Commission judged that acts such as bar negotiations were not legitimate acts under the Attorney-at-Law Act, and therefore were not exempted from the application of the Fair Trade Act and the Labeling and Advertising Act. The Fair Trade Commission explained, “The Bar Association arbitrarily judged the Rotalk service as a violation of the Attorney Act, and uniformly restricted advertisements using Rotalk, thereby exceeding the scope of the Attorney Act delegation.”

The Korean Bar Association also argued that exercising public power as a public corporation entrusted with the authority to enact lawyer advertising regulations is not subject to sanctions by the Fair Trade Commission. He dismissed it as having a bar.

The Fair Trade Commission imposed the maximum penalty of 1 billion won each on the Korean Bar Association and the Seoul Bar Association for violating the business group prohibition act under the Fair Trade Act. However, the Fair Trade Commission judged that the Korean Bar Association violated the Display and Advertising Act by restricting the labeling and advertising of affiliated lawyers, but did not impose additional penalties as it was the same act.

Sejong reporter Park Ki-seok