KOREA: Google contract full of dubious clauses

Ministry of Information and Communication says Google Korea's revised contracts not in Internet users' interest

The Korea Times
Tuesday, May 15, 2007

By Kim Tae-gyu

As far as its presence in Korea is concerned Google seemingly fails to live up to its self-claimed motto of "Don't Be Evil" because the world's biggest search engine has a set of dubious clauses in its revised contracts here.

The Ministry of Information and Communication said Tuesday that it had found some problems in the contract, which are not in the interests of Internet users' and in fact potentially damaging to them.

"We have checked the contract wording of major Internet portal sites over the past few months and discovered significant problems in Google Korea's," said a ministry official.

"In particular, two stipulations are notable -- which court will take charge of litigation and whether Google Korea is required to notify users of revisions to contract articles," he said.

Under current contract conditions, in the event of a dispute, all subscribers to Google Korea are required to file lawsuits against the Internet company at a court in Santa Clara, California near Google's global head office.

Prof. Choi Kyoung-jin at Kyungwon University said the clauses should be addressed. He has worked with the Information Ministry to check the contract articles of major Internet portals.

"The court jurisdiction phrase is not valid because it violates local regulations. It just takes the cake. People should be able to bring Google Korea to Korean courts despite the contract clause," Choi said.

"In case of the contract revisions, there may be some controversies. But at the very least, the outfit needs to notify users about the changes as other Korean portal sites do," he said.

Domestic portal sites including top player Naver post changes of contract articles on their start-up screens or send e-mails to customers to give them a chance to opt out.

Earlier this year, the Fair Trade Commission took issue with the court's jurisdiction. The antitrust regulator urged Google Korea to take measures regarding the clause.

Officials at Google Korea were unavailable for comment.

Date Posted: 5/15/2007