This article was displayed on the ChosunBiz RM Report site at 11:38 a.m. on Apr. 3, 2026.
It has emerged that the size of the starch sugar collusion uncovered by the Korea Fair Trade Commission and prosecutors, involving CJ CheilJedang, Samyang Corporation, Sajo CPK, and Daesang, differs by nearly a factor of two.
According to legal sources on the 3rd, the Fair Trade Investigation Department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Na Hee-seok) views the scale of the collusion in this case as 10.1 trillion won. This is larger than the combined total of the sugar price-fixing case currently on trial (3.2715 trillion won), the KEPCO bid-rigging case (about 677.6 billion won), and the flour price-fixing case (5.9913 trillion won).
Meanwhile, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) initiated deliberations on the collusion case of the four companies on Mar. 6 and estimated related sales over about seven years and six months, from May 2018 to Oct. 2025, at 6.2 trillion won. That is about 4 trillion won less than the prosecution's estimate.
◇Not just price-fixing: side products and bids, too
The difference between the scales identified by the FTC and prosecutors appears to stem from setting different scopes for the case. Although this case is broadly grouped as a "starch sugar price-fixing" case, in practice it splits into several types: ▲ a general starch sugar price agreement ▲ an agreement related to corn byproduct prices ▲ bid-rigging targeting actual end users.
Specifically, the general starch sugar price agreement refers to companies aligning prices at similar levels when supplying starch sugar products such as corn syrup, oligosaccharides, and fructose to food companies or intermediate distributors. It is considered the type of collusion that most directly affects consumer prices.
The agreement related to corn byproduct prices means they also coordinated prices for byproducts generated in the starch sugar production process. In processing corn into starch sugar, byproducts are produced as well, and these byproducts are mainly sold as feed or industrial raw materials. It means they aligned not only the prices of the core products but also of the byproducts.
There is also bid-rigging targeting large clients. In the process of supplying products to actual end users such as OB Beer and Seoul Milk, starch sugar companies divided volumes and prices in advance. As in the recent Korea Electric Power Corporation power equipment bid-rigging case, multiple companies participated in the bids but did not actually compete, with the remaining companies submitting higher prices to favor a particular company.
◇FTC focuses on "price," prosecutors probe "all fronts"
Among these, the FTC decided to first place only the general price-fixing allegation on the agenda of the full commission for deliberation. This is seen as a decision to correct issues with the greatest market impact first. The agency plans to continue additional investigations into the remaining allegations, such as byproduct transactions or bids by large end users.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, have launched a full-scale investigation, viewing the related acts as a single, continuous collusive structure. This underlies the difference in the scales identified by the FTC and prosecutors.
In legal circles, there is an interpretation that prosecutors are examining the case in a broader framework, as the scale of the offense and unjust gains can affect sentencing at trial. A legal source said, "Recently, courts have tended to consider unjust gains and the scale of harm from collusion as key factors in sentencing in antitrust cases."
Prosecutors plan to indict suspects in the starch sugar collusion case as early as this month. The investigation has also gained speed after the arrest of the head of business at Daesang Group on Mar. 31.