Court Upholds Regulatory Order for SBS to Divest Media Rep Shares

A ruling from the Seoul Administrative Court confirmed the legality of the Korea Communications Commission's (KCC) directive requiring SBS to significantly reduce its stake in its subsidiary, SBS M&C, a media representative firm. On June 5, the court ruled against SBS in a lawsuit challenging the KCC's order, which stated that SBS's ownership of 40% of SBS M&C violated regulations on ownership limits for large corporations. According to the Broadcasting Advertising Agency Act, companies with total assets exceeding 10 trillion won are restricted to owning no more than 10% of media representative firms. This regulation was applied to SBS after its major shareholder, Taeyoung Group, was designated as a large corporation in May 2022. SBS argued that the regulation was outdated and claimed that assets closely related to advertising agencies should not be included in the ownership limit calculations. They also contended that the law infringed on broadcasting freedom and property rights. However, the court rejected these arguments, stating that the benefits of preventing excessive influence by corporate groups on media representatives outweighed the disadvantages faced by specific corporations.