On the 24th, it was reported that the Korea Fair Trade Commission launched an on-site investigation to see whether there were unfair transactions in the process of Hanwha Group affiliates trading trademark royalties with one another.
According to the industry, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) started on-site inspections from the day before at several affiliates, including Hanwha, Hanwha Solutions, Hanwha Life Insurance, and Hanwha General Insurance.
Hanwha affiliates sign trademark license agreements with Hanwha and pay trademark royalties. In this process, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is said to be examining whether appropriate royalties were paid.
It is a normal transaction for a holding company to provide a trademark to an affiliate and receive compensation in return. However, because it is difficult to measure the value of a trademark precisely, there is room for abuse by shifting an affiliate's profit to the holding company, where the controlling family's equity stake is high.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said, "It is difficult to confirm the details of a specific matter."