Bucheon City Wins 'Line 7 Extension Bid Rigging' Case After 10 Years... 40 Billion Won in Damages

Bucheon City Hall

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyesook] Bucheon City in Gyeonggi Province has won the final verdict in the 40 billion KRW 'Line 7 Extension Section Bid Rigging Damage Compensation Lawsuit' filed against four construction companies including Daelim Industrial.

Bucheon City and Seoul City claimed that in the 2010 Line 7 Onsu~Sangdong section 7.37km extension construction project, the four construction companies nullified the competitive bidding through collusive bid rigging.

In this regard, the Fair Trade Commission imposed a fine of 22.1 billion KRW on the construction companies, and prosecution followed. Based on this, Bucheon City and others filed a damage compensation lawsuit amounting to 27 billion KRW (Bucheon City 97.2%, Seoul City 2.8%).

The main issue in the lawsuit was related to the recognition of the statute of limitations. In the first trial in 2014, the statute of limitations under the Local Finance Act was recognized, and the plaintiff partially won. However, in the second trial in 2016, the court ruled that the five-year statute of limitations had passed and dismissed all claims of the plaintiff.

Subsequently, in the 2019 Supreme Court appeal, the court overturned the lower court ruling and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court, stating that "the lower court misunderstood the legal principles regarding the relationship between the master contract and the annual contracts in long-term continuous construction contracts and the effect of the master contract, requiring retrial."

In this retrial after remand, the court accepted the plaintiff's opinion on the statute of limitations, and finally, after more than 10 years of litigation, Bucheon City and Seoul City won the final verdict. The amount of damages to be paid by the defendant is estimated to be about 40 billion KRW including delayed interest.

Jang Deokcheon, Mayor of Bucheon City, said, "With this final ruling on the bid rigging damage compensation lawsuit, we have secured tax revenue amounting to about 40 billion KRW," and added, "We will do our best to win the ongoing indirect cost claim lawsuit related to Line 7."

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