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[Alpha Biz= Kim Jisun] The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) recorded a total of 422.7 billion won in fines imposed on companies for violations of laws last year, marking a 7.9% increase compared to the previous year.



According to the "2024 Statistical Yearbook" released by the FTC on the 10th, the total number of cases processed last year was 2,496, which is similar to the 2,503 cases handled in 2023.



The number of cases involving fines was 124, representing a 5.1% increase from the previous year, with the total amount of fines reaching 422.7 billion won.



Breaking down by violation type, unfair trade practices accounted for the largest share of fines at 2,123 billion won. This included 1,701 billion won for unfair joint conduct and 155 billion won for abuse of market-dominant position.



Among the top cases by fine amount, Coupang’s unfair preferential treatment of its own brand (PB) products ranked first with 1,628 billion won. The company was accused of manipulating its search algorithm to artificially boost the ranking of ‘Coupang Ranking’ to expand sales of PB products and direct purchase items.



The second-largest case involved KH Group’s collusion in the bid for the sale of Alpensia Resort, with fines totaling 510 billion won. It was confirmed that KH Group engaged in unfair joint conduct, such as rigging the bidding process with ‘dummy bids’ to secure the sale.



Other major cases included unfair support for CJ Freshway affiliates (245 billion won), collusion among newspaper printing and sales companies (184 billion won), and Kakao Mobility’s ‘call blocking’ incident (151 billion won).

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otably, the FTC’s win rate for administrative sanctions confirmed last year reached 83.1%, the highest since the agency began compiling such statistics in 2001. This represents an increase of 13 percentage points from the previous year’s 70.1%. The rate of partial wins was 9.7%, while losses accounted for 7.2%.



Conversely, the number of lawsuits filed by companies opposing FTC sanctions has increased. The rate of filing objections doubled from 6.4% in 2023 to 13.4% last year. Additionally, the rate of legal challenges related to administrative penalties rose from 19.1% in 2023 to 24.4% in 2024, meaning roughly one in four cases involves legal disputes.

Looking at the long-term trend over the past decade, the number of cases processed by the FTC has decreased. From 4,079 cases in 2014, the total dropped to 2,496 last year—a decrease of approximately 38.8%. During the same period, the total fines imposed also declined from 804.4 billion won to 422.7 billion won, a reduction of 47.5%.



The number of cases initiated by the FTC itself was 1,233 in 2014, decreasing by 8.3% to 1,131 last year. The number of cases received from reports sharply declined from 2,777 to 1,234 over the same period.



A FTC official stated, “The slight increase in the objection filing rate appears to be due to the handling of many high-profile or large-scale fine cases with significant social interest. However, the overall win rate, including partial wins, remains above 90%, maintaining a high level of success for the agency.”

 

 

 

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