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It turned out that the party who reported to the government that LG Electronics’ new dryer was on display in stores without obtaining the National Integrated Safety Certification (KC certification) was a competitor, Company S. As a result of this, LG Electronics delayed the launch of new products, which hurt sales, and Company S launched a new dryer in the market first.
According to the industry on the 2nd, it was confirmed that in 2018, the informant of the case in which LG Electronics was investigated by the Korea Product Safety Management Service under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and was accused by the prosecutors’ office for displaying uncertified dryers in stores was a competitor S Company. Company S is reported to have reported to the Product Safety Management Agency that “LG Electronics is selling products that have not obtained KC certification in the form of advance reservations.” The Product Safety Management Institute conducted an investigation based on the report from S company, and found that LG Electronics’ 16kg large capacity’dual inverter heat pump trom dryer’ was conducting pre-sale without obtaining KC safety certification. In order to distribute electronic products, it is mandatory to obtain KC safety certification.
At the time, it is known that LG Electronics felt burdened by the fact that S Company, a latecomer in the dryer market, was chasing hard. First of all, if KC safety certification came out after receiving a reservation in advance, it was sanctioned for delivery. After the incident, LG Electronics acquired KC certification and started selling dryers, but the delay in the release date hurt sales. On the other hand, S Company, who reported this, was able to put a new dryer on the market before LG Electronics.
The Product Safety Management Service, which received attention for this incident, is an organization under the Ministry of Industry, which was launched in September 2018 to protect consumers through investigations on products in the market. At the same time as the launch, the LG Electronics dryer incident revealed its presence. The industry explains that the government’s distribution product investigation system, which was previously ineffective, gained vitality from this incident.
In fact, reports of illegal and defective products that are submitted to the Product Safety Management Agency are on the rise. Last year, 8206 reports were filed, and the actual number of violations was 4,450. Among them, it is known that there are many cases where investigations are initiated by reports from competitors, such as LG Electronics. An industry insider explained, “Consumer rights and interests should be protected, but there are aspects of using civil petitions to check competitors.”
In addition to LG Electronics,’Osys Korea’, which has not received safety certification for manufacturing and selling notebooks, was sanctioned by the Product Safety Management Agency. This is a case where L and B, which are electric kickboard sharing companies, were also sanctioned for not KC certification. An official of the Product Safety Management Office said, “Investigation of illegal and defective products is essential to protect consumer rights and interests.”
Reporter Jihoon Lee/Gyeongmok Noh [email protected]
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