Fair Trade Commission to Prosecute Business Operators' Families for Private Interest Collusion

Administrative Notice of Fair Trade Commission's Revised Prosecution Guidelines on the 19th

In the future, family members of business operators involved in private interest appropriation will also be subject to prosecution by the Fair Trade Commission. The intention is to strengthen the responsibility of business operators by including related parties involved in serious private interest appropriation acts as targets for prosecution.

On the 19th, the Fair Trade Commission announced an administrative notice from today until July 8th regarding the revision of the prosecution guidelines based on this content. The revision stipulates that when a business operator (corporation) who committed acts such as "unfair provision of benefits to special related parties" under the Fair Trade Act is prosecuted, the special related parties involved in the act shall, in principle, also be prosecuted.

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Until now, even if a business operator who committed serious private interest appropriation acts was prosecuted, it was difficult to clearly prove the degree of involvement solely through the Fair Trade Commission's investigation, resulting in cases where special related parties were not prosecuted. However, since it is appropriate for special related parties involved in serious private interest appropriation acts to bear responsibility corresponding to their degree of involvement, they have been stipulated as principle prosecution targets to have the degree of involvement clearly revealed through prosecution investigations.

Additionally, to clarify the Fair Trade Commission's prosecution authority, the guidelines include specific enumerations of cases where prosecution is possible even though they are not principle prosecution targets (exceptional prosecution reasons) and cases where prosecution may not be pursued even though they are principle prosecution targets (exceptional prosecution exclusion reasons) as additional considerations for whether to prosecute. The Fair Trade Commission plans to finalize and implement the revision after sufficiently collecting stakeholders' opinions during the administrative notice period and going through related procedures such as a plenary meeting resolution.

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