The Korea Fair Trade Commission reduced the penalty surcharge on paper companies that colluded on printing paper prices, prompting small and midsize paper industry players to protest and express regret.
The Korea Federation of Printing Cooperatives and small and midsize printing businesses nationwide issued a joint statement on the 20th saying the authorities had "effectively given a free pass to the printing paper industry's repeatedly perpetrated price-fixing."
Six paper companies, including Hansol Paper, raised printing paper sales prices by an average of 71% through collusion from Feb. 2021 to Dec. 2024. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) had planned to impose a total penalty surcharge of 338.3 billion won on these companies, but after applying the leniency program, the final penalty surcharge was reduced to 144.1 billion won.
Hansol Paper was fully exempted from the scheduled penalty surcharge of 142.5 billion won, and Moorim affiliates also had 51.7 billion won reduced. The total reduction came to 194.2 billion won.
The federation and other small and midsize printing businesses noted that "if the leniency program is used as a means to lessen responsibility for habitual price-fixing, it undermines the purpose of the system to deter collusion and could damage fair market competition order."
They added, "Many small and midsize printing companies were unable to reflect increased costs in supply prices, worsening profitability, and increasing management burdens such as job insecurity and reduced facility investment," and "the harm from collusion is being passed on beyond the printing and publishing industries to final consumers."
Small and midsize printing businesses nationwide called on the government, the National Assembly, and the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) to transparently disclose the legal basis, application standards, and deliberation process behind the decision to reduce the penalty surcharge. They urged the government to prepare effective relief and competitiveness measures that can support the normalization of management for small printing firms and microbusiness owners harmed by collusion.
They also argued that the overall effectiveness of the system should be reexamined, including restricting the application of leniency to habitual and repeated collusion cases, and that discussions to amend the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act should begin.
Park Jang-seon, president of the Korea Federation of Printing Cooperatives, said, "We will continue legal and institutional responses until fair market order is established and the damage from collusion is remedied," adding, "for the livelihood rights of more than 20,000 printing business operators and about 68,000 workers nationwide, we will stand in solidarity with small and midsize printing businesses across the country to the end and respond strongly."