South Korea Investigates Oracle Software Bundling

The South Korean Competition Authority is investigating Oracle. The question is whether it is illegal to bundle software in maintenance contracts. The committee states that customers cannot choose themselves which software is maintained.

Hwang Won-chul, director of the Korean Fair Trade Commission, told Reuters Oracle requires customers to pay for maintenance of all Oracle software. Customers cannot choose for themselves which software they want to conclude maintenance contracts for.

It is not yet clear whether Oracle will actually receive sanctions from the South Korean competition authority. There should be more clarity about this within a few months. The committee also recently launched an investigation into Qualcomm whether it is abusing its dominant market position.

South Korea has also launched an investigation into Microsoft in recent years in connection with the media player’s bundling, but the company was not required to pay damages. Intel was previously less gracious for giving discounts to certain companies and had to pay a 16.5 million euro fine.