Hankyoreh material photo
On the 17th, the Fair Trade Commission agreed to additional sanctions, including prosecution charges, against four of the seven domestic rebar manufacturers that were imposed a penalty of 300 billion won last month due to the price of iron scrap (scrap metal) purchases. The Fair Trade Commission added that Hyundai Steel, Yamato Korea Holdings (formerly Ycase Steel), Hankook Steel, and Daehan Steel, among seven domestic steelmakers who have collated the fluctuations and timing of the steel scrap purchase threshold for eight years from 2010 on that day, have serious violations of the law After deliberation, he said he had decided to file a prosecution. Previously, the FTC has imposed a fine of KRW 383 billion on seven domestic steelmakers, including these four companies, for fixing the purchase price of scrap iron, which is a raw material for rebar for eight years from 2010. The fines of the four companies that were subject to prosecution charges exceed 200 billion won. The prosecution’s accusation was made in the form of additional sanctions as the FTC held an additional deliberation on which of the surviving corporations and the newly established corporations to accuse the prosecution due to the physical division of Y Keith Steel after the gamjami act. Accordingly, the company’s penalty of 42.9 billion won was paid by Ycase Steel, a new corporation, and Yamato Korea Holdings, a surviving corporation, received the prosecution’s investigation. In addition, the FTC decided to accuse the prosecution of three supporters from SeAH Besteel who are suspected of obstructing the FTC’s investigation, such as discarding, concealing, and deleting computerized data during the iron scrap process. If the suspect is admitted, imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to 150 million won will be imposed. This is the first case of being accused of an investigation by the Fair Trade Commission after the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (Fair Trade Act) revised the relevant regulations in 2017. In the course of this investigation, a fine of 6 million won was imposed on three former and current employees of Hyundai Steel who did not respond to the FTC attendance request without justifiable reason. The Fair Trade Commission said, “We will continue to strictly respond to collusion that hinders the competitive order in the market.” By Hong Seok-jae, staff reporter [email protected]