This article was published on the ChosunBiz RM report site at 11:20 a.m. on July 7, 2025.
The Fair Trade Commission imposed a final penalty surcharge of 96.3 billion won on the three mobile carriers SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus for collusion to limit subscriber retention through number portability.
According to the industry on the 7th, the Fair Trade Commission recently sent a decision document related to the collusion case to SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus. The decision document serves as a court ruling, detailing the corrective orders and the amount of penalty surcharges imposed.
The decision document included a determination that the act of coordinating sales incentives to suppress changes in market share constituted an unfair joint action (collusion) under the Fair Trade Act, along with a total penalty surcharge of 96.3 billion won and corrective orders. The Fair Trade Commission viewed the act as "a collusion to avoid competition in the number portability retention race" and finalized the penalties based on evidence of information sharing and collusion among practitioners.
By company, the penalty surcharges were notified as follows: ▲SK Telecom 38.8 billion won ▲KT 29.9 billion won ▲LG Uplus 27.6 billion won. This is a reduction of 17.7 billion won from the total of 114 billion won that was tentatively decided in March. SK Telecom was reduced by 3.8 billion won, KT by 3.1 billion won, and LG Uplus by 10.7 billion won respectively. Initially, considering the related revenue scale and duration of the violation, there was also speculation about the possibility of imposing a penalty surcharge of up to 5.5 trillion won, but after adjusting for reductions and reassessing revenue, the total amount was significantly lowered.
The background for the reduction in the total penalty surcharge was the reassessment of related revenue. The Fair Trade Commission excluded revenue from subscribers who switched to budget mobile services and from corporate and special sales from the penalty surcharge calculation.
The final amounts were somewhat reduced due to readjustments of related revenues submitted by the operators.
In this case, the three carriers monitored their number-portability market share through the Korea Information & Communication's 'Market Situation Division' system in real-time, from November 2015 to September 2022, to maintain a certain level of market share. The Fair Trade Commission judged this as a competitive avoidance act carried out through pre-collusion without explicit agreements.
The Fair Trade Commission delivered the decision documents to each company, and the operators may file an administrative lawsuit within 30 days from the date of delivery. However, regardless of whether a lawsuit is filed, the penalty surcharge will enter the enforcement procedure, and refunds will be made to the companies in case of a later victory.
The three mobile carriers are strongly opposing the Fair Trade Commission's judgment. They argue that this action resulted from the implementation of the 'Device Distribution Structure Improvement Act' by the Korea Communications Commission, asserting that there was no intention to collude. The carriers plan to take legal actions, including administrative lawsuits.