In 2019, the Citizens’ Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ) raised the issue to the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) that mobile carriers are discriminating between domestic content providers (CP) and global CPs. CCEJ pointed out that Netflix and other global CPs are not paying network usage fees.
The major players in the current Internet networking architectures are Internet service providers (ISP), CPs, and users. ISPs, such as SK Broadband, provide physical connections to enable network access. CP provides content to Internet users who access it through the network. Companies such as Netflix, Naver, and Kakao are CPs. The problem is that the more Internet users use the content, the more traffic they induce, and ISPs have to pay more to maintain the network. For example, Netflix accounted for 4.8% of the country’s total network traffic in the fourth quarter of 2020 while Naver accounted for 1.8% of the total traffic and paid around 70 billion KRW last year. Based on this, Netflix is expected to pay at least 100 billion KRW a year for all three ISPs.
However, the FTC has not concluded the case for more than two years. Accordingly, on Nov. 25, Kim Sang-hee, Deputy-Speaker of the National Assembly, and Kim Young-shik, a member of the Korean National Assembly, held a meeting to hear the opinions of Netflix, domestic stakeholders, regulators, and expert groups on network usage fees.
At the meeting, Netflix still maintained its position that it would not pay for network usage fees. Thomas Volmer, a director of global content delivery policy at Netflix, argued that the network usage fee imposed by ISPs on Netflix would be a double charge. Since ISP already sends Netflix content requested by users and receives network usage fees from users in return, it is not appropriate to collect it repeatedly from Netflix. 
In response, Cho Dae-geun, a professor at Sogang University, said, “CP is also a user of ISPs like individuals. Users do not pay each other for their services, but only pay for services they use.” refuting Netflix’s claim. In other words, both Netflix and its users deliver data through the network, so they all have to pay the fee. Meanwhile, Disney Plus, which has just launched in Korea, has responded positively to network fees, in contrast to Netflix. In the ongoing debate, some argue that the controversy should be settled through legislation.