Cartels 2025

SOUTH KOREA Trends and Developments Contributed by: John H. Choi, Changhun Lee, Hyunah Kim and Jae-Hyuk Choi, Shin & Kim

According to the KFTC’s press release, the com - panies engaged in bid rigging across 190 bid - ding processes organised by 16 construction companies between 2012 and 2022. The bid - ding involved the supply of storage units – typi - cally consisting of wooden shelves mounted on aluminum pillars – for walk-in closets and pan - tries in newly built apartment complexes. According to the KFTC’s press release, the companies predetermined the winning bidders through meetings or phone calls, agreeing that the designated winner would either share a por - tion of the order or provide cash compensation to the other participants, who acted as decoys. Once the agreement was made, the designated winner shared its bid price with the decoys, who then submitted bids reflecting that price to exe - cute the collusive scheme. This case marks the third time the KFTC has sanctioned bid-rigging in the interior construc - tion sector for apartment housing. In April 2024, the KFTC sanctioned furniture companies for collusion in bids for built-in furniture, and in October 2024, for bid rigging related to bath - room construction. The KFTC highlighted the significance of this case in exposing a long- running and systematic bid-rigging scheme. It also highlighted the broader implications of such conduct, including its potential impact on rising apartment prices. The KFTC also expressed its commitment to strengthen monitoring of collu - sive conduct in sectors closely tied to consum - ers’ daily lives. Mobile carriers case In March 2025, the KFTC announced its decision to impose a total surcharge of around KRW114 billion, along with remedial orders, on three mobile carriers (the “carriers” ) for colluding to control the flow of customers switching between

carriers. According to the KFTC’s press release, the carriers agreed and implemented measures from 2015 and 2022 to prevent a disproportion - ate concentration of Mobile Number Portability (MNP) customers – those who switch carriers while retaining their phone numbers – on cer - tain carriers. In South Korea’s highly saturated mobile telecommunications market, mobile car - riers compete to attract customers from com - petitors through MNP. The KFTC determined that the carriers had a shared interest in limiting any excessive increase in sales incentives and subsidies typically used to attract MNP custom - ers. According to the KFTC’s press release, the car - riers co-ordinated their actions through “mar- ket situation team” with the Korea Association for ICT Promotion, originally formed as a self- regulatory measure to prevent excessive sales incentives that would violate the Mobile Device Distribution Improvement Act. The KFTC found that the carriers agreed on balancing the net increase or decrease in MNP customers across the market. This was implemented by adjust - ing sales incentives: when a particular carrier experienced a continued net increase in MNP customers, it would lower its sales incentives, or rival carriers would raise theirs. Conversely, if a carrier saw continued net losses, other carriers would lower their sales incentives or allow the affected carrier to raise its sales incentives. In some cases, employees from a carrier gaining customers apologised to those from losing carri - ers and promised to reduce their sales incentives to restore balance. The KFTC concluded that these practices restricted competition among carriers to acquire MNP customers, resulting in a decline in both the daily net change and the overall number of MNP cases.

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