SEOUL, May 31 (Korea Bizwire) – Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) revealed Monday that it plans to repeal a policy that limits the value and the amount of marketing premiums. For the past 35 years, marketing premiums were limited to 20 million won in value, and the combined value of all giveaways was not allowed to [...]
SEJONG, April 14 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday that it has recommended global furniture giant IKEA revise itsterms regarding refunds for canceled deliveries. IKEA, which opened its first store in southern Seoul in 2014, is running a delivery service for South Korean customers who are familiar with free packaging and door-to-door delivery. The service costs [...]
SEOUL, April 11 (Korea Bizwire) – In a rare joint publicity stunt, South Korea’s two smaller mobile carriers placed an ad in 29 major newspapers late last month to denounce industry leader SK Telecom Co.‘s push to buy the country’s top cable TV operator. “We request that SK Telecom give up on a harmful acquisition [...]
SEOUL, April 8 (Korea Bizwire) – Audi Volkswagen Korea has come up short in a suit filed against the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) after facing sanctions for paying power bloggers to write positive reviews about its vehicles. On April 7, The Seoul High Court ruled that Audi failed in its appeal against the FTC. The plaintiff [...]
SEJONG, April 4 (Korea Bizwire) – Kakao Corp., the operator of South Korea’s top mobile messenger KakaoTalk, has been included on the antitrust watch list as a large business group, with its mutual investments and loan guarantees to be restricted, the watchdog said Sunday. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) announces a newly updated list of large [...]
SEJONG, Dec. 9 (Korea Bizwire) – South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday it is checking possible unfair provisions in contracts signed between Apple Korea and local electronic repair companies. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) did not elaborate on details but said it confirmed there were unfair clauses that favored the electronics giant. “The probe was [...]
SEOUL, Sept. 17 (Korea Bizwire) — The chief of South Korean retail giant Lotte Group pledged Thursday to untangle a cobweb of cross-shareholding among its affiliates and speed up the listing process of its hotel unit. Testifying before a parliamentary committee, Shin Dong-bin also ruled out the possibility that Lotte, the fifth-largest family-run conglomerate in [...]
SEOUL, Aug. 10 (Korea Bizwire) – Amid a succession feud between the two sons of Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho, which brought to light the problems of corporate governance in Korean conglomerates, several bills have been submitted to restrict an expedient way to inherit management rights, and to disclose corporate governance status more clearly. On August [...]
SEJONG, July 31 (Korea Bizwire) – Asking consumers to pay over 300,000 won before repairs of broken iPhones had been completed has been judged to be unjustified. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) advised six Apple service centers to change their policies, which were said to be unfair to consumers. As a result, the service centers must [...]
SEJONG, July 30 (Korea Bizwire) — South Korea’s antitrust watchdog ordered six local iPhone repair companies Thursday to change their customer service rules that unfairly restrict the rights of users. UBase, Peach Valley, Beyond Tech and three other firms cited for unfair practices are all official repair companies authorized by tech giant Apple to service its [...]