The Korea Fair Trade Commission said on the 20th it imposed a record penalty surcharge totaling 671.045 billion won in a cartel case on seven flour corporations, including CJ CheilJedang, for colluding on wheat flour sales prices. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) also ordered them to reset prices within three months to the level before the collusion and report back.
According to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) that day, seven corporations — CJ CheilJedang, Daehan Flour Mills, Sajo Dongaone, Samyang Corporation, Daesun Flour Mills, Samhwa Flour Mills, and Hantop — colluded on the prices of flour supplied to noodle and confectionery manufacturers, including Nongshim, over about six years from Nov. 2019 to Oct. 2025. During the cartel period, the seven corporations agreed a total of 24 times on the magnitude and timing of price increases and cuts, and the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it set the total sales related to the collusion at about 569 billion won.
The seven corporations are oligopolistic operators with an 87.7% market share (based on 2024 sales) in the domestic business-to-business (B2B) wheat flour sales market. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said its analysis found that, due to their collusion, wheat flour sales prices rose at least about 38% and up to 74% compared with Dec. 2019, when the collusion began.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) determined their conduct violated Article 40, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 1 (price collusion) and Subparagraph 3 (quantity collusion) of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act. The statute prohibits businesses from unfairly restricting competition through price or quantity collusion.
A Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) official said, "Despite being sanctioned by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) once in 2006 for collusion, they colluded again this time," and noted, "We deemed the violations grave, as they continued collusion even while receiving subsidies prepared by the government as part of price stabilization efforts, so we imposed the largest penalty surcharge ever in a cartel case."
Meanwhile, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said it completed filing criminal complaints in January this year, at the request for prosecutorial referral, against the seven milling companies involved in the case and a total of 14 executives and employees who took part in the collusion.