Paul S. Rhee

Practice Areas

Antitrust & Competition, Antitrust & Competition Litigation, Antitrust & Competition Compliance, Merger Filings, Regulation on Conglomerates ∙ Holding Companies, Unfair Affiliate Transactions, Cartel, Unfair Trade Practices, Consumer Protection, Abuse of Market Dominance, Terms and Conditions ∙ Labeling and Advertising, Distribution, Subcontracting

Career

Paul S. Rhee is the senior foreign attorney (partner) in the highly-ranked and award-winning Antitrust and Competition Practice Group at Yoon & Yang LLC in Seoul, Korea, which has been designated since 2008 as an ‘ELITE’ competition practice in Korea by Global Competition Review (GCR) with listing as a GCR 100 law firm and, in 2018, won the GCR Awards for “Regional Firm of the Year: Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa” and In-House Community Asian-Mena Counsel Firm of the Year.

Paul has been practicing in Korea for over 20 years, advising multinational corporations on all aspects of their Korean business while primarily focusing on antitrust matters involving interface between antitrust law and intellectual property rights, corporate leniency program, merger control, criminal prosecution, private damage claims, administrative appeals, internal audits/investigations and compliance/training. He has extensive experience representing multinational corporations in Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) investigations concerning abuse of dominance, unfair trade practice (including subcontracting), false advertising, merger control and domestic and international cartels in various industries. He also has extensive experience in M&As involving serious antitrust issues such as cartels and merger clearance.

At Yoon & Yang Paul led his team in successfully representing United Technologies in the KFTC’s merger investigation into its acquisition of Raytheon, Goodrich and Rockwell Collins, which resulted in KFTC’s unconditional approval and was honored with the GCR Awards 2019 for “Merger control matter of the year – Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.” He also led his team in successfully representing Microsoft in the KFTC’s merger review investigation into its acquisition of Nokia’s mobile device business, which resulted in the first consent decree in a merger review case in Korea and was honored with the GCR Awards 2016 for “Merger control matter of the year – Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa.” He also led his team in representing multinational companies in numerous domestic and international cartel investigations that resulted in successful applications for KFTC’s corporate leniency and amnesty plus programs, which resulted in full or partial exemption of administrative fines and immunity from criminal prosecution.

Since 2017, Paul has been a ranked lawyer for Competition and Antitrust by Chambers & Partners Asia-Pacific. In 2023, he was selected by Thomson Reuters' Asian Legal Business for Korea Super 30 Lawyers. In 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2021, Paul was the winner of the Law Business Research’s Lexology Client Choice Award in Competition & Antitrust for South Korea. He has been a contributing author from Korea covering competition practice areas for LexisNexis UK’s LexisPSL Practice Note, Thomson Reuters Practical Law Global Guide, and Chambers and Partners’ Global Practice Guide.

Professional Memberships

Admitted to the bar, Washington, D.C. (1998); Connecticut (1997)

Publications

South Korea Section, Chambers and Partners’ Global Practice Guide – Merger Control (Co-author), 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

South Korea Section, LexisNexis UK's LexisPSL Practice Note on Competition (International Cartel Enforcement & Merger Control) (Co-author), 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

South Korea Chapter, Thomson Reuter’s Practical Law Global Guide, Competition and Cartel Leniency (Co-author), 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

Euromoney/Legal Media Group’s Expert Guides: Competition and Antitrust, “Korea Fair Trade Commission’s Right Balance in Regulating SEPs and De Facto SEPs” (Co-author), 2018

Global Competition Review’s “Know-How Private Antitrust Litigation – Korea” (Co-author), 2014, 2015, 2016

LexisNexis UK's Doing Business in Korea (Co-author), 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

“South Korea: Cartels and its Aftermath,” The American Lawyer (Co-author), May 2014

“South Korea Q&A Chapter,” Thomson Reuters’ PLC Cross-border Mergers & Acquisitions Handbook (Co-author), 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012/2013

“Korean Chapter,” The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Cartels & Leniency, Global Legal Group (Co-author), 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015

“Korean Antitrust Regulations,” South Korea Chapter, The Guide to Competition and Antitrust, International Financial Law Review (Co-author), 2008, 2009, 2010

“Overlapping Regulations by Sector-specific Regulators and the Competition Authority in South Korean Telecommunications and Financial Industries,” CUTS Centre for Competition, Investment & Economic Regulation (Co-author), November 2013

South Korea Chapter, Global Legal Group's International Comparative Legal Guide to: Cartels & Leniency (Co-author), 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014.

Work Highlights

ANTITRUST

[Merger Control]

Represented both Symbio and Schaeffler in a merger filing to establish a joint venture for hydrogen fuel cell parts business

Represented PSA Automobiles (forrmerly Peugeot and now part of Stellantis) in a merger filing to acquire a substantial stake in Symbio, the hydrogen fuel cell joint veture between Michelin and Faurecia/Forvia

Represented Raytheon Technologies Corporation in a merger filing to establish a joint venture with Saudi Aramco for cybersecurity business

Represented ALD in a merger filing to establish a joint venture with Mitsubishi UFJ Lease & Finance for vehicle leasing and fleet management business

[Cartel]

Represented a leading multinational software company’s Korean subsidiary in the KFTC’s 3-year investigation into public procurement bid-rigging, which resulted in a non-violation decision

Represented a leading multinational machine component manufacturer's Korean subsidiary in the KFTC’s 4-year investigation into the domestic conveyor belt cartel, which resulted in full immunity under the KFTC’s corporate leniency program and full exemption of administrative surcharge in another cartel investigation under KFTC’s amnesty plus program (first time for full exemption of administrative surcharge under KFTC’s amnesty plus program), and in a follow-on damage action filed by major Korean customers

Represented a leading multinational machine component manufacturer's Korean subsidiary in the KFTC’s 2-year investigation into the domestic crawler/track cartel, which resulted in full immunity under the KFTC’s corporate leniency program and amnesty plus benefits in another cartel investigation

Represented a leading multinational elevator manufacturer's Korean subsidiary in the KFTC’s 3-year investigation into the domestic elevator/escalator cartel (at the time, one of the longest running cartel investigations in Korea), which resulted in partial immunity and substantial reduction in administrative surcharge under the KFTC’s corporate leniency program, and in a 7-year follow-on damage action filed by a major Korean customer in the trial and intermediate appellate courts and the Korean Supreme Court

[Abuse of Market Dominance]

Represented an interested party in an investigation by the KFTC into an alleged abuse of market dominant position by Google and its Android operating system

Represented Qualcomm in an investigation by the KFTC into an alleged abuse of market dominant position

Represented Riiid, a Softbank Vision Fund-backed AI education technology company, in acquiring Qualson, a leading English language learning and content provider based in Korea

M&A

Represented a party bidding to acquire TmaxSoft

Represented Camso Inc. in its sale to Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin SCA regarding Korean aspects of the transaction

Represented Oriental Brewery Company in acquiring a leading Korean craft beer maker

Represented Camso Inc. (formerly Camoplast Solideal Inc.) in selling its Korean subsidiary to Kamur Partners Private Equity for KRW 37,000,000,000

Languages Spoken

English and Korean

Experience

2002-present: Yoon & Yang LLC

2006-12: Vice-Chairman, Legal Services Committee, The European Union Chamber of Commerce in Korea

2001-02: Horizon Law Group, Seoul, Korea

1998-00: Kim & Chang, Seoul, Korea

1996-97: Lambert Armeniades & Lee (now Mayer Brown LLP’s Paris office), Paris, France

Education

Awards