Lee International

The revision to the “Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act” (hereinafter referred to as “Unfair Competition Prevention Act”), which stipulates that the illegal use of data is an act of unfair competition, has passed the plenary session of the National Assembly on November 11, 2021.  The revised Unfair Competition Prevention Act will take effect on April 20, 2022.

The importance of preserving the data is becoming more significant as it is the foundation for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the Digital Age.  However, it was criticized that high-quality data is not used or distributed smoothly due to insufficient legal basis to protect it.  Accordingly, the need for data protection regulations has been discussed for a while.  In order to prepare for a data protection system, the Korean government presented and discussed various opinions through meetings attended by relevant ministries, industries, legal circles, academia and civic groups.

Through this process, the Ministry of Science of Information and Communications Technology enacted “the Basic Act on Promotion and Use of the Data Industry” (hereinafter referred to as “the Data Basic Act”) to stipulate the general principles of data protection, and the specific content of illegal data use and remedies are delegated to the Unfair Competition Prevention Act.

The revised Unfair Competition Prevention Act adds illegal use of data as an act of unfair competition.  Thus, civil remedies such as injunction and damage claims for illegal data use will become more feasible, and administrative remedies such as administrative investigations and corrective measures by the Korean Intellectual Property Office will also become available.  Data subject to protection is limited to data meeting the following requirements: data for a transaction with a specific target, data that should be managed electronically, data having economic value by accumulating in a significant amount, and data that should be made public.  The revised Act is expected to create an environment in which companies can trade data safely, thereby further promoting the domestic data trading market.