Companies caught engaging in price-fixing will face penalties of at least 10% of related revenue under new regulations announced by South Korea's antitrust regulator.
The Fair Trade Commission said Monday it has prepared and issued an administrative notice for revised "Guidelines on Detailed Standards for Imposing Surcharges." The revision aims to root out corporate collusion by imposing heavy fines regardless of the severity of the violation.
The revised guidelines will undergo public consultation until the end of this month before being finalized through a full commission vote.
The key change raises the base penalty rates applied according to the degree of violation. For minor violations, fines will increase from the current 0.5-3% of revenue to 10-15%. Penalties for serious violations will rise from 3-10.5% to 15-18%, while very serious violations will be adjusted from 10.5-20% to 18-20%. Based on the minimum threshold, this represents a 20-fold increase in penalty amounts.
The FTC is also strengthening sanctions against unfair profit-taking and improper support by controlling families of conglomerates. The minimum penalty rate based on improper support amounts will rise from 20% to 100% to recover all illicit gains, while the maximum rate increases from 160% to 300%.
"We will enhance deterrence by imposing penalties exceeding illicit profits on companies that previously viewed fines as just a cost of doing business," an FTC official said.
Meanwhile, the FTC reportedly launched on-site inspections of oil refiners on Monday regarding suspected price-fixing of petroleum products. According to industry sources, the commission conducted investigations at SK Energy, GS Caltex, S-OIL, and HD Hyundai Oilbank after detecting collusion allegations during an internal probe.
