Fair Trade Commission Targets Dealerships in 'Home Appliances, Petroleum Distribution, Medical Devices' Sectors... Written Survey to Be Conducted This Month

Second Field Survey of the Year Following Last Month's 'Furniture, Book Publishing, and Boilers'
Plan to Establish a Standard Dealership Contract Reflecting Survey Results and Industry Meetings

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Joo Sang-don] The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 3rd that it will conduct a written field survey on dealership transactions in three industries?home appliances, petroleum distribution, and medical devices?until the 28th.

This field survey is the second of the year, following last month's survey on three industries: furniture, book publishing, and boilers.

Through this survey, the Commission aims to understand the general status of each industry, the current state and methods of dealership transactions, experiences of unfair trade practices, difficulties, and areas needing improvement.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, the home appliances industry utilizes various distribution methods such as department stores, large marts, home shopping, internet, retail stores, and dealerships. There have been cases of unfair trade practices, such as suppliers prohibiting dealerships from selling products through online open markets and imposing disadvantages like shipment suspension and supply price increases on dealerships if violated. The petroleum distribution industry requires large-scale facilities, equipment, and capital, resulting in a high proportion of exclusive transactions and a market dominated by a few large refiners. Issues have been continuously raised regarding the practice where refiners require gas stations to prepay based on provisional prices and later settle the difference without considering financial costs. In the medical device industry, unfair trade practices have occurred, such as suppliers demanding confidential business information to bypass dealerships and sell directly or unilaterally refusing transactions during the contract period.

The survey targets approximately 260 suppliers and about 21,500 dealerships across the three industries: home appliances, petroleum distribution, and medical devices.

The field survey will be conducted via websites and mobile applications for the convenience of suppliers and dealerships. Additionally, to gather more on-site opinions, visits by trained professional investigators will be conducted for dealerships that express willingness to participate.

The Fair Trade Commission plans to analyze the responses from the home appliances, petroleum distribution, and medical device industries and announce the results in November. Based on the survey results, it will promote improvements in unfair trade practices by establishing and distributing a standard dealership contract in December of this year, while also inspecting and correcting any legal violations through ex officio investigations.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.