Naver and Kakao Fined for 'Disclosure Obligation Violation'

[Sejong=Asia Economy Reporter Son Sunhee] Naver and Kakao were each fined tens of millions of won for multiple violations of disclosure obligations.

According to the Fair Trade Commission's "2021 Disclosure Compliance Inspection Results for Publicly Disclosed Business Groups" (targeting 2,612 companies belonging to 71 business groups) on the 9th, Naver, ranked 27th in the business world by assets, was found to have violated a total of three disclosure obligations and was fined a total of 12.67 million won.

Regarding large-scale internal transactions, Naver-affiliated Rico was fined about 3.07 million won for late disclosure of securities transaction details.

Naver-affiliated Semicolon Studio was fined 3.2 million won for delayed disclosure of the general status of the business group, which includes company overview, financial and profit and loss status, overseas affiliates status, and changes in affiliates.

Naver-affiliated unlisted company Markti was fined 6.4 million won for failing to disclose ownership and control structure matters such as changes in major shareholders' stocks and executives.

In particular, the Fair Trade Commission's inspection found 17 cases of violations of disclosure obligations for important matters by unlisted companies in 11 business groups, with Naver being the only one that did not disclose at all, resulting in the highest fine. The remaining 16 cases were all delayed disclosures.

Naver was also fined 2.68 million won in the 2020 disclosure compliance inspection for delayed disclosure of the ownership and control structure of Snow, an unlisted company.

Kakao, ranked 18th in the business world, violated a total of six disclosure obligations and was fined 37 million won. Among these, three were violations of large-scale internal transaction disclosure obligations. Kakao-affiliated DK Techin, Sanai Pictures, and Asan Kakao Medical Data were fined a total of 31.08 million won for delayed or omitted disclosure of fund or asset transactions.

Kakao-affiliated K&Works and Kids Note were fined a total of 2.72 million won for delayed disclosure of executive and board operation status, and unlisted company Mega Monster was fined 3.2 million won for late disclosure of ownership and control structure.

The Fair Trade Commission also analyzed the 2020 trademark (brand) usage transaction status of 2,612 companies belonging to 71 publicly disclosed business groups, revealing that Naver was newly added to the group conducting paid brand usage transactions.

The annual brand usage fees collected by Naver from four affiliates amount to 7.2 billion won. When calculated as a ratio to net sales, this is the highest level (0.9%).

Among the existing paid transaction groups, Korea Tire, Mirae Asset, and Korea Investment Finance, which were pointed out in 2019 for excessively high trademark usage fees, lowered their trademark usage fee rates to 0.13?0.5%.

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