"Is This Why School Uniforms Are So Expensive?" 27 Gwangju Firms Caught Colluding in Bidding... 321 Million Won Fine

Collusion in 260 School Uniform Tenders from 2021 to 2023
1 to 6 Companies Used as Decoys to Undermine “Lowest Price Competition”

Twenty-seven school uniform retailers in Gwangju Metropolitan City have been caught by the Fair Trade Commission for colluding to predetermine winning bidders and prices in middle and high school uniform purchase tenders, thereby rigging the bidding process. This act exploited loopholes in the “school-led uniform purchase system,” directly increasing the financial burden on parents for educational expenses.

Nanum School Uniform Store, Songpa-gu, Seoul. Yonhap News.

On March 18, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it had decided to impose corrective orders and a total fine of 321 million won on 27 school uniform companies in the Gwangju area—including local dealerships of well-known brands such as Elite School Uniform, Ivy Club, Smart School Uniform, and Skoolooks.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, these companies engaged in systematic collusion during the school uniform purchase tenders for the 2021–2023 academic years. Once a tender was announced, they communicated with each other to decide in advance which company would win the bid. The remaining companies would participate nominally by submitting higher prices than the preselected winner, or by submitting incomplete documentation.

This type of collusion occurred in a total of 260 tenders. In 226 of these cases, the company preselected through prior agreement actually won the bid. Some business operators participated in as many as 34 collusive bids. As a result, school uniform prices remained high—costs that would have been lowered through fair competition—directly passing the burden onto students and their parents.

The background of this collusion lay in the companies’ self-interested desire to secure profits. After the “school-led uniform purchase system” was introduced in 2015 and price competition intensified, the companies conspired to avoid competing on price in order to maintain profitability. In particular, it was revealed that Gwangju-area businesses often encountered each other at briefings and other events, creating an environment conducive to coordinating their interests.

This measure is consistent with the recent emphasis by the President on stabilizing the economy and directly addressing the issue of school uniform prices. The Fair Trade Commission has not limited its investigation to the Gwangju case; since February, it has launched a large-scale collusion probe targeting four major school uniform manufacturers and more than 40 dealerships nationwide.

The Fair Trade Commission stated, “We will swiftly conclude the investigation into school uniform collusion that increases household burdens and take strict action upon confirmation of any violations of the law. We also plan to significantly strengthen the effectiveness of economic sanctions by raising the standard rate and the upper limit for fines through a revision of the law.”

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