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By Baek Byung-yeul
Open Net, a nonprofit organization leading the opposition against Korean internet service providers that make major tech companies pay network usage fees, is being questioned over its credibility as the organization received research funding from Netflix, according to an industry source, Friday.
“Open Net recently received tens of millions of won from Netflix Korea in the name of research funding related to network usage fees, according to data from the National Tax Service,” the industry source said.
“The industry view is that most of the research funds Open Net received were likely used to represent the positions of Big Tech companies such as Netflix and Google, which are pushing against sharing the burden of network usage fees,” the source added.
The source also said Netflix provided financial support for research of Open Net due to concerns that the discussion of network usage fees would not be in favor of content providers at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) event, which was held in Barcelona from Feb. 27 to March 2.
According to the source, one of Open Net's directors wrote an opinion piece for a local newspaper recently, stating that there was significant opposition at the MWC to forcing content providers to pay network usage fees.
Open Net received a donation of 300 million won ($229,626) from Google Korea at the time of its establishment in 2013. As of 2021, the organization had received a total of 1.36 billion won from Google Korea.
“Open Net was sponsored solely by Google Korea when it was established in 2013. As the debate over the network usage fee bill intensified in Korea, Google has been actively opposing the bill along with Open Net,” the source said.
The source also claimed that the organization has been operated by funding from Big Tech companies such as Google and Kakao.
“According to Open Net's donation expenditures reported in 2021, it spent about 180 million won on various entities including a law firm for public interest litigation. There is no issue with Open Net spending donations on public interest lawsuits. But the problem is that Korea University's law school professor Park Kyung-shin, who also serves as a director of the organization, works as an adviser of the law firm,” the source said. “The Corporate Tax Act says that a non-profit organization must use donations for public interest purposes, not for the benefit of members.”