Fair Trade Commission fines Hyundai M-Systems 100 million KRW and refers to prosecution for stealing partner company technology

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Hyundai M-Systems is sanctioned by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) for misappropriating technical data from small and medium-sized partner companies.

On the 10th, the FTC imposed a fine of 100 million KRW on Hyundai M-Systems for unfairly demanding technical data from its suppliers, using it to develop its own cameras, and then cutting off business with them. The FTC also decided to refer the then CEO to the prosecution.

Hyundai M-Systems is a company that manufactures electronic components for construction equipment. In January 2017, it was acquired by Hyundai Futurero Group’s Hyundai M Partners and changed its name to Hyundai M-Systems in February of the same year. Hyundai Futurero Group is a corporate group led by Chairman Chung Mong-il, the eighth son of the late Chung Ju-yung, Honorary Chairman of Hyundai Group, and was spun off from Hyundai Heavy Industries Group in December 2016.

Since January 2014, Hyundai M-Systems had been receiving cameras for heavy equipment from partner company A and supplying them to Volvo Construction Equipment. From June 2015 to May 2018, in an effort to replace these cameras with its own products, Hyundai M-Systems developed, maintained, and repaired its own cameras while misappropriating technical data from company A during this process.

The FTC stated, “Using a supplier’s technical data to reduce the time and cost of product development can constitute technology misappropriation,” and pointed out that “if technical data was used unfairly without consultation with the supplier and beyond the originally intended purpose, it may be considered an act of technology misappropriation.”

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