Collusion Even When Price and Production Volume Are Pre-Exchanged... Fair Trade Commission Strengthens Regulations

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Kwon Haeyoung] The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) views the exchange of information such as prices and production volumes that harms market competition as collusion and is preparing detailed regulations.

According to the FTC on the 9th, it recently commissioned a research project titled "Study on Establishing Subordinate Norms for Regulating Information Exchange Collusion." Following the amendment of the Fair Trade Act in December last year, information exchange acts can be punished as a form of collusion, and through this research project, the FTC plans to establish related enforcement ordinances and review guidelines.

Until now, it was difficult to punish competitors even if they exchanged information about the timing and rate of price increases and raised prices around the same time. A representative case is when the FTC imposed a fine of 135.4 billion won on four ramen companies including Nongshim and Samyang for exchanging price information and raising prices six times, but the Supreme Court canceled the sanctions in 2015.

However, starting next year, if ▲ there are clear signs of collusion such as matching price increase rates and ▲ the information necessary for these signs has been exchanged, it will be presumed that an agreement related to collusion has been made.

The FTC plans to analyze domestic and international cases and overseas subordinate norms through this research project to prepare detailed regulations.

An FTC official said, "In addition to price and production volume, production plans and other information can also be subject to collusion," adding, "Through the research project, we will determine the scope of information that competitors should not exchange."

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