Ruling party lawmaker raps Naver for 'deceiving' users

SEOUL, March 28 (Yonhap) -- The secretary general of the ruling People Power Party on Tuesday lashed out at Naver Corp. for "deceiving" consumers with its dominant market status and vowed to push for a law revision to uproot such behavior.

Rep. Lee Chul-gyu of the People Power Party made the remarks, criticizing South Korea's top portal operator for inserting commercial advertisements in public electronic documents, such as auto tax bills, provided to users on behalf of the government.

"This is no different from a scam against the people by impersonating the government," Lee said. "This incident is shocking enough to flip out the entire nation, but surprisingly, many people don't know about this. This is all because Naver is dominating news."

Naver, which runs a namesake search portal that encompasses online shopping, payment and news services, has long faced criticism over its aggressive business expansion that critics claim hurts smaller companies.

"We will not sit idly by and watch the arrogant behavior of Naver that goes beyond a monopolistic company and is now behaving like a big brother effectively having the Republic of Korea at its beck and call," Lee said.

He also criticized the tech giant for not taking any responsibility to rein in fake news and biased media reports spreading through its online news platform.

mlee@yna.co.kr
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