12 construction firms fined for price-fixing

South Korea's antitrust regulator Monday imposed a combined fine of 40.1 billion won (approximately US$37.2 million) on 12 construction companies for price-fixing in the bidding process for a subway construction project underway in Daegu.

Hyundai Engineering & Construction and Samsung C&T were fined 5.56 billion won each, while Daelim Industrial and POSCO Engineering & Construction were slapped with a fine of 5.46 billion won and 5.25 billion won, respectively. SK Engineering & Construction was fined 3.97 billion won.

Others penalized include Hyundai Development, GS Engineering & Construction; and Daewoo Engineering and Construction.

In a meeting in April 2009, officials from eight of the construction firms allegedly colluded to fix prices in advance in order to share a 798.9-billion-won project to construct the subway line 3 in Daegu.

The FTC plans to send the case to the prosecution, officials said.

AJP