Korean Air, Samsung Fined For Price Fixing by Foreign Regulator

Korean airliners and electronic companies have been hit by fines of a total of 2.3 trillion won ($2.06 billion) for price fixing by foreign regulators in recent years.

Fair Trade Commission (FTC), the United States regulator, has imposed fines of 1.66 trillion won on Korean companies, followed by 647.4 billion won by the European Union and around 20.1 billion won by Japan, according to the report from FTC, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Korean Air Lines Co. and Asiana Airlines Inc. were fined about $300 million and $50 million, respectively, in 2007 and 2009 for price fixing, the FTC report said.

Samsung Electronics and LG Display got penalties from European Union for engaging in fixing prices for DRAMs and liquid crystal display panels 2010.

The report noted that the number of South Korea companies fined by the United States has been increasing in recent years as antitrust regulator are stepping up their surveillance on business malpractice.

(아주경제 송지영 기자)

AJP