by Jo Youjin
Published 18 Feb.2024 12:25(KST)
Jeonggwang Tech has been sanctioned by the Fair Trade Commission for misappropriating technology by passing on drawings received from a subcontractor to another company.
On the 18th, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it would issue a corrective order and impose a fine of 30 million KRW on Jeonggwang Tech, a manufacturer of automobile engine-related parts, for violating the "Act on the Fairness of Subcontract Transactions (Subcontract Act)".
According to the Fair Trade Commission, in September 2019, Jeonggwang Tech commissioned subcontractor Company A to manufacture initial molds necessary for automobile parts production and received the drawings without justifiable reasons.
Initial molds are molds used to produce a small quantity of prototypes before mass production of specific parts. Manufacturers create mass production molds based on the initial molds to produce actual products.
Jeonggwang Tech later passed the drawings received from Company A to another mold manufacturing company and requested the production of mass production molds at a lower cost, according to the investigation.
The Fair Trade Commission determined that Jeonggwang Tech leaked the subcontractor’s drawings to a third party without authorization to reduce production costs and decided to impose sanctions.
The Fair Trade Commission stated, "We will continue to focus on monitoring technology misappropriation to improve unfair subcontracting practices in the mold industry and protect the rights of mold manufacturers."
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