(Sejong = Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Soo-hyun = An argument has been raised that Korea Ratings Data (KODATA), a corporate credit rating agency established with investments from policy finance institutions and commercial banks, is distorting competition in the public research and research market by providing Korea's largest corporate information database (DB) only to affiliates.
Attention is being paid to the Fair Trade Commission's judgment on whether this constitutes an unfair trade practice or an abuse of market dominance.
The Korea Survey Association announced on the 6th that it reported KODATA to the Fair Trade Commission for discriminatory treatment, unfair support, and transaction refusal for affiliates under the Fair Trade Act.
KODATA, established in 2005, is a company in which policy financial institutions such as the Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (15.00%), Korea Technology Finance Corporation, IBK Industrial Bank of Korea, and KDB Korea Development Bank (8.96% each) hold a total of 41.88% of the shares.
It is understood to have a database of approximately 14 million corporate information, the largest in Korea.
In public survey and research services, corporate DB is a key information resource used in the entire process of population identification, sample design, contact with research subjects, and verification.
In fact, among the proposal requests from ordering agencies confirmed by the association, it was found that there were cases in which the purchase of KODATA corporate database was required or a population setting using it was requested.
However, the association pointed out that KODATA is providing DB to KODATA Solution, which was established in December 2022, while restricting DB access to competitors.
KODATA Solutions is a company in which KODATA holds a 29% stake, and the remaining 71% is held by KODATA's internal labor welfare fund.
The association claims that thanks to KODATA providing a corporate database, KODATA Solutions' total sales increased from 4.7 billion won in 2023 to about 14.9 billion won last year.
The association also pointed out that Cordata Solutions has been promoting its ability to utilize corporate information DB as a differentiating factor in the public research market.
In the report, the association said, "Please investigate whether KODATA's database provision and transaction practices constitute discriminatory treatment and unfair support for affiliates, refusal of transactions with other companies, and interference with business activities."
He then requested, “It is necessary to investigate whether this constitutes an unfair interference with business activities by taking advantage of a market-dominant position, and to take corrective measures to require competing research companies to provide corporate databases on non-discriminatory terms.”
