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Tae Hyun LEE, Head of Corporate Practice Private equity will continue to be a major player in the M&A market. We expect to see increasing investments in new business areas and spin-offs from existing portfolios. We are also seeing many M&A projects with the ESG agenda, trying to transform traditional industries into ESG-friendly businesses particularly in the environment and energy sectors. |
| Gee Hong KIM, Head of Competition Practice With the Amended Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act taking effect on 30 December 2021, we expect to see more rigorous regulation of unfair transactions among affiliated companies and information exchange among competitors. Major corporations are making concentrated efforts to strengthen their compliance systems within the early part of 2022. The Korea Fair Trade Commission will likely focus heavily on the regulation of online platform businesses. |
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Haeng Gyu LEE, Head of Capital Markets 2022 is likely to see growing uncertainty around accumulating domestic household debt, the Korean presidential election, the Chinese real estate bubble, and US tapering. As a result, stock market and IPO activities are likely to recede in the new year. However, we expect to see a steady increase of public offerings in next generation businesses such as rechargeable batteries, the metaverse, AI and the ICT industry in general. |
| Yully KANG, Head of Banking and Finance We expect to see PF investments expand in 2022 backed by the continued increase in PF interest rates, though increased project participants and instability of profits from public projects may impact the availability of attractive projects. We also expect heavy regulation of the PF industry by Korea’s financial authorities. 2022 may see an extraordinary economic boom for the ship and aircraft financing sector as the economy makes full-fledged recovery and demands increase for new ships and aircraft as well as used hulls for refurbishing. |
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Won JEONG, Head of Real Estate and Construction We expect the REIT market to continue to grow in 2022, but other real estate transactions are likely to decrease due to interest rate hikes. With the amended Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act taking effect in October 2021, strengthened protection of retail investors may significantly reduce the number of real estate investment funds. However, new development projects are still likely to flourish in 2022. |
| Jinhee KIM, Head of Global Dispute Resolution Virtual hearings and video-conferencing may become the unequivocal “new normal” in international arbitration. We expect to see increased contract disputes resulting from the COVID crisis and a vibrant discourse over force majeure clauses. Most institutional arbitration proceedings continued throughout the pandemic without significant delays, and we believe corporations will continue to prefer arbitration over domestic litigation in cross-border contract disputes. |
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Choon Won LEE, Head of Maritime Practice Despite the COVID crisis, the shipbuilding and shipping industry experienced an unprecedented boom in 2021 after more than 10 years of recession. We saw a sharp increase in cargo transportation, resulting in heavy port congestion and a scarcity of containers and container ships to meet surging demands. We expect to see fewer orders for new ships in 2022 compared to 2021 as the shipping market stabilizes with the introduction of new ships, but the boom will continue for the time being. |
| Sang Sub UM, Head of Tax Practice The Amended Income Tax Act comes into effect on 1 January 2022. Among the significant changes is the classification and taxation of virtual asset-related income as “other income”. Also, new measures are put into place to prohibit tax evasion through foreign subsidiaries such as required notification of acquisition or disposal of overseas real estate assets. We expect to see increased tax litigation following active tax audits and investigations that had been deferred during the COVID crisis. |
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Hee Jung SHIM, Head of Finance Regulation Practice In the wake of the private equity crisis, the financial supervisory authority strengthened sanctions on finance companies and took an active stance on consumer protection through dispute resolution. As a result, there was an increase in demand for related legal advice. We expect this trend to continue particularly with respect to sanctions as a trial structure is established for the FSS’ sanctions review committee. In 2022, we also expect to see more claims and disputes related to consumer rights under the Financial Consumer Protection Act. |
| Byoung Moon CHOI, Head of Insurance Practice As was the case in 2021, we expect to see continued increase in disputes related to annuities and cancer insurance policies in 2022. Debates over amendment of the Act on the Protection of Financial Consumers to introduce direct indemnity by general agents and big tech online platforms are likely to impact the insurance market and trigger changes in the modus operandi of insurance companies and agents. |
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Jeong Kyu CHOE, Head of Media and TMT Practice We are seeing increased regulation of big tech online platforms such as Kakaotalk and Naver, which appears to be a global trend. We expect to see continued strengthening of regulatory regimes targeting the TMT industry under the new Telecommunications Business Act which took effect in September 2021. Korea was the first to prohibit online platforms from requiring developers to use only the platforms’ own payment systems. |
KOREA LEGAL INSIGHT
Anticipated changes in Fair Trade Policies under the Suk-yeol Yoon Presidency
2022.06.07
KOREA LEGAL INSIGHT
New PIPC manual on Personal Data Processing Consent and Guideline for Privacy Policies
2022.05.09
