Photo courtesy of the Fair Trade Commission

 

 

[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) has imposed a warning on Coupang and its Chairman, Kim Beom-seok, for submitting incomplete information during the process of designating corporate groups. Specifically, Coupang failed to disclose the relatives of Chairman Kim, which led to the omission of 15 individuals from the list.

According to industry sources on Monday, the FTC took action for violating the Fair Trade Act, and both Coupang and Chairman Kim received a warning.

The FTC has been implementing a process to verify the "same person" (the person with control over a conglomerate) before assigning corporate groups since 2021. In this case, the FTC had requested Coupang and Chairman Kim to submit information regarding the family members of Kim due to the possibility of him being designated as the "same person" of the group.

However, during this process, 15 relatives of Chairman Kim were omitted from the submitted list. The FTC raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, especially since some of the relatives owned companies or could establish companies in the future.

The FTC also found that seven of the omitted relatives could be easily identified through public records, such as Kim's grandfather's family register, and therefore, no legitimate reason could be given for their omission. However, for the other eight individuals, the omission was deemed justifiable.

The FTC concluded that Coupang and Chairman Kim likely did not deliberately intend to violate the law, as they did not act with malice or knowledge of the omissions. Since the omissions had minimal impact on the designation process or regulatory actions, a warning was deemed sufficient.

The FTC confirmed that Coupang and Chairman Kim accepted the warning and acknowledged the legal violations.

 

 

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