The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups requested the Fair Trade Commission to file a prosecution against Emons Furniture for violating subcontracting laws.
The ministry held the '28th mandatory complaint request review committee' on the 19th and announced this decision on the 20th.
The ministry explained that Emons Furniture caused significant damage by continuously failing to issue agreements to subcontractors in long-term subcontracting relationships and leading to operational difficulties for the affected subcontractors due to unjust cancellations of orders.
While commissioning the manufacture of five types of furniture handles for apartment projects from August to November 2021, Emons Furniture canceled approximately 1.3 billion won in manufacturing commissions all at once, despite there being no fault on the part of the affected companies.
Additionally, from August 2018 to November 2021, while commissioning the manufacture of 49 parts for furniture in apartment projects, Emons Furniture did not issue written documents specifying legal requirements. During the same period, they made payments of 4.07 billion won in bills but did not pay about 32.79 million won in discount fees.
Emons Furniture received a prevention order and a penalty surcharge of 360 million won from the Fair Trade Commission in June for the violations.
Wonyoung Jun, head of the Small Business Policy Division at the ministry, noted, 'This request for prosecution signifies our demand for severe punishment against the chronic issues of failing to issue written documents and unjust order cancellations violating the application of punitive damages in the subcontracting field.' He also stated that 'measures will be taken against chronic unfair practices where large corporations abuse their superior positions to harm small and medium enterprises (SME) or repeatedly violate laws.'