Korea’s cryptocurrency environment still remains cloudy as ever. Although the Korean government has taken steps to regulate the use and sale of cryptocurrency by proposing six bills in the National Assembly, it remains to be seen which regulations will finally be implemented. The proposed bills, though all different, contain several common threads such as clauses […]

Picking a law firm in Korea has been the topic of a number of articles and books. In Chapter 30 of his book, Doing Business in Korea, Tom Coyner describes the trials and tribulations of picking the right law firm in Korea. He opines that some (if not many) domestic and international lawyers are commercially […]

South Korea has taken data protection very seriously and has implemented a general data protection law: the Personal Information Protection Act, PIPA. Amended in 2016, PIPA places strict requirements on data privacy in sectors such as IT networks, credit card information, cloud computing, and online advertising. The 2016 amendments were in response to the 2014 […]

For those doing business in Korea or wanting to do business in Korea, it helps to have an understanding of the local antitrust laws and regulations. To begin with, the Korean antitrust regime is governed by the Monopoly Regulations and Fair Trade Act (MRFTA) of 1981. Like in the US and other jurisdictions, the MRFTA‘s […]

Like directors in the US and elsewhere, directors in Korean companies have fiduciary-related duties. Such duties are set forth in the Korean Commercial Code and include: Duty of Care as a prudent manager Duty of Confidentiality Fiduciary Duty - the Duty of loyalty Duty of Care In Korea, if a director violates the duty of […]

There are many kinds of risks facing companies on a daily basis.  Geo-political risk is definitely one of them and it is a major risk that companies and countries alike must navigate. The geo-political risks in greater Asia have long been overshadowed by the risks facing us here on the Korean peninsula.  Ever since the […]