A Move from South Korea to Reshuffle the Webtoon World: Over 100 Companies Under Review
The Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), South Korea's competition regulator, has pressed the button to fundamentally resolve chronic unfair practices in the rapidly growing webtoon and web novel industry. This comprehensive review, initiated as of May 2026, covers more than 100 platforms and content providers (CP), including industry giants. The Commission is specifically scrutinizing whether platforms are abusing their dominant power over creators and the transparency of revenue-sharing models.
The biggest factor that ignited the investigation was the complaints voiced by artists and writers. According to research, 36% of industry workers point to "unfair compensation" and "exorbitant commission rates" as their biggest problems. Furthermore, many writers working in the shadow of giants like Naver Webtoon and Kakao Entertainment complain about vague payment breakdowns, unpaid revision requests, and complex contract systems known as "Minimum Guarantee" (MG), which actually leave the creator in debt. With this review, the KFTC aims to analyze the profit structures and competitive environment of platforms to introduce new corporate regulations.
In fact, this is not the South Korean government's first intervention in the sector. In past reviews conducted in 2018 and 2024, more than 1,100 unfair clauses were identified in the contracts of 23 major companies. At the forefront of these clauses was the transfer of "secondary rights," such as the adaptation of works into films or series, to the platform without the author's permission. The global success of productions like Solo Leveling and Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint has pushed the economic value of these rights to billions of dollars. Therefore, the issue of who retains these rights is no longer just a matter of copyright.
