"This time, the Deputy Director has also moved to a Director position. I'm worried about how it will be perceived from the outside."
This was said by an executive of the Fair Trade Commission while observing colleagues who recently moved to Coupang. The concern is that since the leavers have moved to corporations under investigation by the Fair Trade Commission, there is a possibility of influencing the investigation. It is also unusual for a public official from the Fair Trade Commission to migrate successively to a specific corporation.
Last year, Coupang was imposed with a penalty surcharge of around 160 billion won by the Fair Trade Commission for allegations of manipulating the exposure algorithm for its private brand (PB) products. It is still under scrutiny for allegations related to bundling of the Wow Membership and coercing preferential treatment for Coupang Eats.
The director of the Fair Trade Commission moved to Coupang Pay as an executive after passing the employment review of the Public Officials Ethics Committee at the end of June. The move to a subsidiary rather than the Coupang headquarters appears to have considered that the headquarters is currently under multiple investigations by the Fair Trade Commission.
This is not the first time that Fair Trade Commission officials have moved to Coupang. In April, a Deputy Director moved to a Managing Director position at Coupang's headquarters, and in 2022, B, who had been a Director of the Cartel Division, moved to an Executive Director position at Coupang. In the past three years, three former officials from the Fair Trade Commission have joined Coupang at the executive level.
According to the Public Officials Ethics Act, these individuals have received formal employment approval after a certain period post-retirement through reviews. Although there are no procedural issues, concerns have been raised that such successive moves may shake external trust in Fair Trade Commission policies.
A public official noted, "It is hard to see the flow of a Deputy Director first moving to the headquarters and then a Director moving to a subsidiary as coincidental from an external perspective," adding, "There is a need to consider what signals the Fair Trade Commission is sending to the outside world."
Not only the Fair Trade Commission, but also personnel from the Ministry of Employment and Labor, the Ministry of Economy and Finance, and the Presidential Office have been consecutively moving to Coupang and its affiliates. In June alone, six retired public officials passed employment reviews and transferred to Coupang and its subsidiaries.
Among them are individuals such as a level 7 official from the Prosecutor's Office (Director General at Coupang), an officer from the Korean National Police Agency (on-site manager at Coupang Fulfillment Service), a level 6 official from the Ministry of Employment and Labor (Director General at Coupang Logistics Service), a level 3 official from the Presidential Office (Managing Director at Coupang), and a level 3 official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (Director General at Coupang).
Some interpret that Coupang is hiring manpower as a proactive response to the regime change and the tightening flow of platform regulations.
President Lee Jae-myung stated in the pledge book that he would prevent anti-competitive behaviors from large platform corporations through the enactment of the 'Online Platform Fairness Act' and directly mentioned the necessity of increasing the manpower of the Fair Trade Commission in a cabinet meeting.
The government is also promoting the so-called 'Yellow Envelope Law', which grants collective bargaining rights to subcontracted workers. Since Coupang indirectly employs many special employment workers, it inevitably becomes a major target of regulation.
One industry insider noted, "Coupang has had a strong image of being at odds with the government, and with almost no personnel from the government within the organization, there have been many assessments that communication with the government is not smooth," adding that there may also be an intention to secure response capabilities ahead of policy changes.
Concerns about the need for checks against preferential treatment of former officials have also been raised. A lawyer expressed worry, stating, "I am concerned that the move to Coupang may become a new avenue for preferential treatment of former officials," and added, "Given that the platform policy of the new government is still uncertain, there is a need for institutional checks to prevent related sensitive information from leaking in advance."
In principle, it is difficult to question the freedom of choice of occupation of public officials within the limits permitted by law. However, if the flow of former officials who designed and operated regulations moving to regulated corporations repeats, the credibility of policies will inevitably decline. It seems that the challenge for the Fair Trade Commission now is how to establish standards that uphold fairness and transparency.