Naver rigged its own search to favor its own shops — Korea fined it ₩26.7B

Naver is South Korea's dominant search engine and internet portal. Its shopping and video services sit alongside its search results, and Naver controlled the algorithms that decided what users saw. From around 2012, the company adjusted those algorithms to give its own services a lift.

The changes pushed Naver's own Smart Store products and Naver TV content higher in shopping and video search results, while pushing competitors' offerings lower. Users searching for products or videos were steered toward Naver's own services, without being told the results had been tilted in Naver's favor.

On 6 October 2020, South Korea's Fair Trade Commission fined Naver ₩26.7 billion (about $23 million) — ₩26.5 billion for the shopping manipulation and ₩200 million for video. The KFTC found that Naver had abused its market-dominant position and engaged in unfair trade practices, misleading consumers and harming competitors. It was the first time South Korea had fined a technology platform for algorithmic changes that favored its own business.

The case was about the gatekeeper's temptation. Naver controlled the doorway through which users reached products and content, and it used that doorway to favor itself. The lesson is that a platform's search box is not its own storefront; tilting neutral results toward your own services is not merchandising, it is self-dealing, and a regulator will treat it as abuse.