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Facebook wins lawsuit against South Korean regulator over slowdown fine

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Facebook wins lawsuit against South Korean regulator over slowdown fine

Facebook Inc. won a yearlong legal battle against the Korea Communications Commission's decision to impose a financial penalty on the company over allegations of network slowdown, The Korea Times reported.

The Seoul Administrative Court ruled that it was unlawful for the telecom regulator to slap the social media giant with a 396 million won fine in 2018 for allegedly delaying the access of SK Telecom Co. Ltd., SK Broadband and LG U+ subscribers to Facebook. The court concluded that Facebook did not intend to slow down the services, saying the commission's administrative measures against the company, including the fine, should be canceled.

The fine was a result of an investigation that found Facebook caused the slowdown by routing its users' connections to networks in Hong Kong and U.S. instead of local internet service providers, a violation of the local telecommunications business act.

Facebook argued that it cannot take responsibility for internet access speeds as it is a content provider and said the slowdown was due to a breakdown in negotiations between local telecom companies.

"The plaintiff (Facebook) could not foresee the rerouting would disrupt the network service and has no reason to block Facebook users from its service. On principle, the content provider also has the right to freely redirect network routes," the court said.

The Korea Communications Commission said it will appeal the decision.

As of Aug. 22, US$1 was equivalent to 1,210.27 South Korean won.