The Fair Trade Commission sanctions unfair behavior… SKT “normal competition, affiliate transactions, and legal procedures”
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On the 24th, the Fair Trade Commission decided to impose a penalty of billions of billions of dollars along with a corrective order for SK Telecom (SKT)’s unfairly supporting sales fees to SK Broadband, which combines its mobile communications and Internet TV (IPTV) products. decided. According to the Fair Trade Commission, SK Telecom and SK Broadband have started’combined product sales’ since 2012 by combining the mobile communication products and IPTV products they sold respectively. When the agency sells the combined product, the two companies separate the mobile communication product and IPTV product and charge a sales fee for each. However, the FTC reports that SK Telecom has paid a significant portion of the SKBroadband’s fees since 2016. For example, the sales commission paid by the existing SK Broadband was 90,000 won, but even if the combined product sales commission increased by about 200,000 won, SK Telecom took the entire increase. In response, the FTC believes that SK Telecom has unfairly supported sales commissions to increase product competitiveness and market share while keeping SK Telecom in the mobile communication market. The FTC said, “SK Telecom received unfair support in the digital paid broadcasting market. It has enjoyed effects such as an increase in market share, and its financial performance has improved rapidly, greatly strengthening its competitive position.” In this regard, the two companies decided to pay SK Telecom the increase in sales fees for SK Telecom in a post settlement method, fearing that an unfair support problem would arise. However, the FTC believes that such a cost sharing plan has not been properly implemented. Skave Road Band paid 10.9 billion won (a portion of sales commissions from 2016 to 2017), but SK Telecom paid 9.9 billion won again in the form of advertising sales to compensate for the loss. According to the FTC investigation, SK Telecom suspects that SK Telecom deliberately provided unfair support, such as, “If you support invitation expenses, you have unfair support,” and “There is a risk of unfair support and violation of the Telecommunications Business Act”. Also receiving. The Fair Trade Commission imposed a fine of 3,198 billion won, respectively, to SK Telecom and SK Broadband, and 6,396 billion won. The two companies were also ordered to correct them side by side. In response, SK Telecom made a refutation to this, saying, “SK Telecom shared objective and reasonable sales fees with SK Broadband, and there was no unreasonable support act.” “The FTC’s decision was to judge normal market competition and reasonable affiliate transactions as’unlawful’. It will analyze the resolution and go through legal process.” By Hong Seok-jae and Song Chae-kyung-hwa, staff reporter [email protected]