SEOUL, February 9, 2026 — The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has launched a task force aimed at strengthening the bargaining power of economically disadvantaged groups and held its first meeting on Monday.
The task force, titled “Task Force on Improving Fair Trade Systems to Strengthen the Bargaining Power of Economically Disadvantaged Groups”, convened its inaugural meeting at the Korea Fair Trade Mediation Agency in Seoul. Participants included the KFTC Secretary General, the Director General for Competition Policy, private sector members of the task force and representatives from relevant ministries, including the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.
The initiative forms part of the KFTC’s 2026 key policy agenda to promote shared growth by enhancing the bargaining power of weaker parties in contractual relationships. Despite government-wide efforts, disparities in wages and productivity between large and small enterprises persist, and small businesses and workers continue to face difficulties in securing a fair share of economic gains.
The KFTC is pursuing a redesign of relevant provisions under the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act to allow economically disadvantaged groups to negotiate collectively. In particular, it plans to introduce measures granting exemptions from the Fair Trade Act for collective negotiations conducted by small businesses with large companies, provided certain criteria are met. The KFTC expects that excluding such activities from the scope of the Act would significantly strengthen the bargaining position of qualifying small enterprises.
At the same time, the authority said it would carefully design the system to prevent potential side effects, such as price increases or reduced competitiveness of export-oriented companies.
The task force will also examine measures to clearly exclude workers under the Trade Union Act, workers classified as labour providers under the Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance Act, and trade unions from the scope of the Fair Trade Act. The KFTC said that clarifying these exclusions would ensure that their collective activities are exempt without additional review, allowing them to exercise their rights without concerns about potential violations of competition law.
The task force is composed of experts recommended by academia and business organisations, with relevant ministries participating in discussions on specific agenda items. Key issues under review include the method and scope of granting exemptions for small businesses, measures to control potential adverse effects, the exclusion of workers and trade unions from the Act’s application, and the relationship with labour-related legislation.
The KFTC plans to consolidate the task force’s discussions and additional consultations to prepare improvement measures within the first half of 2026 and to proceed with amendments to the Fair Trade Act and its subordinate regulations in the second half of the year.
