The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) in Korea, is expected to hand down a series of sanctions and fines on several business units of major conglomerates this year. Under investigation by the antitrust regulator for alleged collusion are companies like LG, GS and SK groups. The petrochemical, oil refinery and sugar manufacturing sectors are among the conglomerates' businesses under investigation, on suspicion of price fixing or other collusion activities, over several months or even years.
The petrochemical companies of LG and SK groups, and other suspected colluders could be slapped with the heaviest-ever combined fines of about 200 billion won (US$213 million). This could be because the companies did not cut product prices when international oil prices were low but hiked prices when oil prices rose, and are also under suspect for having fixed prices at a certain level by controlling supply.
The FTC launched the investigation on the refiners in 2004 and is still trying to find apparent evidence. Few of the companies in question continued to say they would consider filing an appeal on the matter to the courts if sanctions are imposed, denying the allegations, as they argue that price fixing is almost impossible under the current price-setting system.
10-Jan-07 
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