It was confirmed on the 26th that the Korea Fair Trade Commission had detected suspected bid rigging in group accident insurance by eight non-life insurers and launched an on-site investigation.
According to the industry that day, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) Cartel Investigation Bureau recently dispatched Researchers to the headquarters of eight insurers—Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance, Meritz Fire & Marine Insurance, DB Insurance, KB Insurance, Hanwha General Insurance, NH NongHyup Property & Casualty Insurance, Heungkuk Fire&Marine Insurance, and Hyundai Marine & Fire Insurance—to conduct on-site investigations.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) was said to have found that these insurers colluded during the bidding process for group accident insurance contracts for corporations. Article 40, Paragraph 1, Subparagraph 8 of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act prohibits competitors from determining the successful bidder and winning price during bidding.
Group accident insurance is insurance that corporations or organizations purchase to cover employee injuries. Unlike policies that individuals sign up for directly, the corporation contracts the policy and employees receive benefits such as insurance payouts.
Meanwhile, insurers' group accident insurance collusion was uncovered in 2008. At the time, three life insurers and five non-life insurers divided the group insurance for 16 metropolitan and provincial offices of education by region when bidding and were fined a Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) penalty surcharge of 1.956 billion won.