Chairperson Ju Biung-ghi said on the 23rd, "We decided on a penalty surcharge of 338.3 billion won, a corporate complaint, and an order to reset prices for the collusive conduct of six paper companies."
Chairperson Ju said this at the "task force (TF) meeting on special management of everyday prices," saying, "We held a full commission meeting yesterday."
Chairperson Ju said, "Leading domestic paper businesses, including Hansol Paper and Moorim, have secretly agreed on prices for printing paper widely used in education and publishing over 3 years and 10 months since 2021." Ju added, "It was an unfair practice that sought to respond to the challenges facing the paper industry not through productive competition such as developing new businesses, but through collusion that shifted harm to consumers and other market participants."
Chairperson Ju said, "Along with imposing a stern penalty surcharge, we will also impose an order for independent price resetting and will continue monitoring and guidance until prices distorted by collusion return to normal levels."
Chairperson Ju also said the agency would impose sanctions severe enough to force businesses that repeatedly violate the law out of the market. Chairperson Ju said, "We will amend the relevant law to further toughen sanctions by expanding penalty surcharge aggravations for repeat collusion and reducing leniency for voluntary reporting."
At the same time, Ju said, "We are also reviewing introducing a system that orders the dismissal or suspension of duties of executives who led the collusion." Chairperson Ju added, "We are also considering introducing strong structural measures such as partitioning corporations, selling equity, and selling businesses."