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South Korea: Public utilities hit with unfair trade practices fines

By  |  December 18, 2014

South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission announced Thursday that it has sanctioned four public corporations and their affiliates a total of $13.9 million for anticompetitive conduct.

Reports say Korea Electric Power, Korea Expressway, Korea Railroad and Korea Gas, along with their affiliates, unfairly discriminated against some companies in favor of doing business with others, all while abusing their market power to force the companies they partnered with to cut prices.

In a statement, the KFTC said the companies “have been ordered to make changes to the way they conduct transactions in the future.”

The watchdog added that because the companies are public, they hold significant influence in how business is done in their perspective markets. The firms hold monopolies over their industries, reports say, causing “a chain reaction of unfair practices that could hurt small and medium enterprises down the line,” the KFTC said.

Full content: Korea Herald

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