Ministry of SMEs and Startups Identifies 613 Companies Suspected of Violating Win-Win Cooperation Act

Announcement of the 2023 Regular Survey Results on Consignment and Entrustment Transactions
Improvement of Unpaid Payments for 602 Companies Amounting to 11.2 Billion KRW

A total of 613 companies suspected of violating the Act on the Promotion of Mutual Cooperation between Large, Medium, and Small Enterprises (Mutual Cooperation Act) were detected.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups announced on the 31st the results of the "2023 Regular Survey on Consignment and Subcontract Transactions," conducted since December last year targeting 3,000 consignor companies and 12,000 consignee companies.

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups conducts an annual regular survey to rectify unfair trade practices occurring during consignment and subcontract transactions. Through this regular survey, 613 companies suspected of violating the Mutual Cooperation Act were identified. Among them, 591 consignor companies paid 8.9 billion KRW in unpaid delivery payments to consignee companies through administrative guidance by regional Small and Medium Venture Business Administrations.

The Ministry requested administrative measures such as improvement demands for 22 consignor companies that did not voluntarily improve unpaid delivery payments and other arrears, and among them, 11 companies paid an additional 2.3 billion KRW to consignee companies.

For the 11 companies that did not comply with the final improvement demand and corrective actions, their company names and violations of the Mutual Cooperation Act were publicly announced on the same day, and the Fair Trade Commission was requested to take measures related to violations of the Subcontracting Act.

Additionally, administrative measures such as improvement demands were imposed on 22 companies that violated the failure to issue written documents such as agreements and goods receipt certificates, and among them, 21 companies that failed to issue agreements were fined.

Won Young-jun, Director of the Small Business Policy Office, stated, “Through the regular survey, we will do our best to establish a fair trade culture where small and medium enterprises receive timely and fair payments beyond short-term damage relief,” and “we plan to strengthen continuous field monitoring through the 2024 regular survey on consignment and subcontract transactions, which started this month.”

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