SOUTH KOREA Law and Practice Contributed by: John H. Choi, Changhun Lee, Hyunah Kim and Jae-Hyuk Choi, Shin & Kim
2.2 Dawn Raids/Search Warrants The KFTC may conduct a dawn raid to investigate whether there has been a violation of the MRFTA by sending investigating officials to the place of business of the company that is suspected of participating in a cartel. In fact, the KFTC fre - quently conducts dawn raids. The KFTC’s dawn raid is conducted with the consent of the com - pany that is subject to the investigation (ie, it is not a compulsory investigation). However, if the company, an officer or an employee interferes with the KFTC’s investigation, criminal punish - ment may be imposed, depending on the type of interference. Meanwhile, the investigating offi - cial and such official’s supervisor who receive a report of the investigation plan have an obliga - tion to keep information related to the dawn raid confidential so that it is not leaked. Procedure of Dawn Raids Before investigating the desks and drawers, etc, of the investigated company, the investigating official should seek co-operation from the per - son in charge of the division that is subject to the investigation at the investigated company or an officer or employee of equivalent position. When investigating data in the information pro - cessing system of the investigated company, the data should be accessed or copied with the co- operation or in the presence of the person con - cerned at the investigated company. At this time, the investigating official may collect digital data by deciding the scope of the data and printing it or using the imaging method at the investiga - tion site. However, if it is difficult to decide the scope of the data and to image it at the inves - tigation site, the digital storage media can be held in custody or the entire digital data may be imaged, in which case, data is selected later at the KFTC office with the investigated company’s counsel in attendance. If an officer or employee
of the investigated company requests a copy of the data collected by the investigating official, the investigating official must comply with the request. Investigated companies may request the return or disposal of irrelevant materials submitted dur - ing dawn raids within seven days of submission. Investigating officials must return or dispose of the materials if they are deemed irrelevant, or they must request a separate determination by a committee within the KFTC if they believe the materials are relevant to the investigation. If the committee determines that the materials are irrelevant to the investigation, they must be returned or disposed of accordingly. In the dawn raid process, the investigating offi - cial may conduct interviews of parties, interest - ed persons, or persons for reference and may request statements or confirmation documents. If an officer or employee refuses to co-operate with an interview, an administrative fine of up to KRW100 million for the investigated com - pany and up to KRW10 million for the officer or When conducting a dawn raid, the investigating official must first present a public official identi - fication card and issue a notice of investigation to the officer or employee of the investigated company, stating the period, purpose, subject and method of the investigation. The investigat - ing official must conduct the dawn raid within the scope of the purpose of the investigation stated in the notice of investigation. If, during the inves - tigation, materials appear to be related to other legal violations, appropriate measures should be taken by the KFTC, such as sending the relevant materials to the KFTC division in charge. employee may be imposed. Restrictions on Dawn Raids
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