부당염매의 위법성 판단기준에 관한 소고 - 대법원의 견해에 대한 비판적 검토를 중심으로

A Study on the Criteria for Assessing Illegality of Selling Practices at Unfairly Low Prices

&nbsp;&nbsp;Selling at low prices itself is not a violation of competition law. Rather reduced prices due to productive efficiency or cost saving should be considered as a merit of the market economy, and they are the goal the competition law pursues as well. On condition that low prices are fixed to exclude competitors or have such effect, however, the pricing can be assessed to be illegal despite the short-term profits. on consumers. This kind of business practices have been called as unfair selling at low prices or predatory pricing.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;But, comparing the legislative history of the regulation on predatory pricing and discussions on it in other advanced countries, the discussions on such practices in Korea have not been that active. Just one case has been dealt at the supreme court so far.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;This paper is composed to make an analysis about the economic and systematic background of the selling at unfairly low prices on the basis of thought that it can be different from the jurisprudence on the predatory pricing established through the U.S. precedents. It presents some criteria to assess illegality of the selling at unfairly low prices considering the current legislative framework and construction on the Fair Trade Act.