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South Korea: Tiremaker fined for preventing retailers from cutting prices

By  |  July 21, 2019

Hankook Tire & Technology was fined 117 million won (US$99,472) for forcing its dealers to sell tires at above certain prices, the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced on Sunday, July 21, according to The Korea Times.

The regulator stated that Hankook limited discounts that online dealers offered on tires to a maximum of 40% of factory prices from January 2017 to November 2018.

The KFTC claimed that the tire manufacturer threatened to reduce or stop supplying tires to dealers not complying with its demand, which is an unfair trading practice and illegal resale price maintenance.

A KFTC official said, “Hankook Tire’s practice limits price competition for dealers in the tire market, and therefore undermined consumers’ opportunity to purchase tires at reasonable prices.”

Full Content: The Korea Times

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