A legal amendment in South Korea that will come into effect next week has introduced new regulations on the stability of services provided by multinational Internet content service providers such as Netflix and Google. Those who fail to comply will face fines.

Earlier this week, South Korea passed amendments to the "Telecom Services Act" regulations, stipulating that online content service providers have the responsibility to provide users with stable services.

The new regulations, scheduled to take effect on December 10, apply to large network service companies that provide 1% or more of total network data traffic across Korea in the last three months of the year. The new regulations mainly target popular multinational online content service providers such as Netflix, Google and Facebook, as well as local Korean companies Naver Corp. and Kakao Corp.. If these companies fail to comply with the new regulations, they may face administrative fines of up to 20 million won (approximately US$18,350). Recently, the services of global streaming service giants Netflix and Google have encountered complaints, but the two companies’ responses to the complaints have recently been scrutinized by regulators, despite the increasing popularity of their services. Last month, Google’s video platform YouTube suffered a few hours of interruption in South Korea, which sparked criticism. In addition, Netflix's service also experienced problems during May and June this year. Because Netflix did not respond appropriately to problems with the services it provided, the company was accused by a member of the ruling party at a meeting of the Korean National Assembly in October. The service business of these two companies in South Korea has been expanding. According to market research company IGAWorks, in September, Koreans spent an average of nearly 30 hours on YouTube. According to data from the research organization WiseApp, as of October, Netflix has more than 3.6 million paying subscribers in South Korea. According to the Ministry of Science and ICT (Ministry of Science and ICT), in accordance with the new regulations of the amendment, these companies must provide users with stable services, regardless of the terminal equipment they use or which ISP (telecommunications service provider) they choose. Quotient). The new regulations also require that these companies take measures to prevent the abuse of online traffic through cooperation with ISPs. However, some people criticized the new regulations of the amendment, believing that the amount of fines is too small and the new regulations cannot produce application effects when they are implemented. But an official from the Ministry of Science and Information Technology of South Korea said, “The new regulations are meaningful in themselves, not just the amount of fines.” "There has always been no way to hold these companies accountable for their failure to provide stable services." The official also said, "But as the influence of online content service providers grows, they need to assume greater responsibility. "The official said that after the new regulations come into effect, the government hopes that there will not be a series of new violations. Multinational content service providers are becoming more and more popular in South Korea, leading to a surge in online traffic, so some ISPs require them to share network costs. For this reason, Netflix Services Korea, a South Korean subsidiary of the American streaming media giant Netflix, is currently in a legal battle with SK Broadband, South Korea’s major telecom service provider. The South Korean subsidiary of Netflix claims that it is not obliged to pay SK Broadband fees for network data usage. Although the new regulations of the amendment do not mention the issue of network cost sharing, and will not affect the current lawsuit between the two companies, officials from the Ministry of Science and Information Technology of South Korea stated that they can be subject to legal disputes about network cost sharing in the future. Cite and serve as a reference. People in the Internet industry have questioned the new regulations of the amendment, claiming that online content service providers have done their best to provide stable services. "It is doubtful what is the purpose of the amendment." An official from the Korea Internet Enterprise Association said, "Aren't these companies working hard to provide stable services?" (Tianmen Mountain)

Source: NetEase Technology Report, translated by Google Translate