Publication

What to Keep and What to Fix in Regulating Large Business Groups

The Korea Fair Trade Commission designated 102 business groups as subject to disclosure in 2026, 47 of them as subject to cross-shareholding restrictions. The brief separates three different questions: the total assets of a business group, market power in individual markets, and the gap between ownership and control. It reviews Korean research on both the risk of profit transfer through intra-group transactions and the benefits of internal capital markets, the 2025 disclosure compliance check (146 violations), and prosecution referrals for affiliates omitted from designation data. On the size thresholds for SMEs, it examines the 2024 basic statistics on mid-sized enterprises (427 moved from mid-sized to SME status and 328 graduated from SME status), the evaluation of World Class 300 and OECD recommendations. It proposes three measures: improving how disclosure data are submitted while keeping statutory disclosure and responsibility, a temporary step-down of support limited to programs where the burden rises sharply when support ends, and checking the implementation of already announced reforms of sector-specific entry regulation. It does not propose abolishing the same-person system or broadly raising the designation thresholds on current evidence.