Chinese restaurants in the Seoul metropolitan area filed damages suits, saying they were harmed by a flour price-fixing cartel among seven domestic flour milling companies.
According to legal sources on the 29th, law firm LKB Pyeongsan filed a damages suit on the 26th on behalf of 12 Chinese restaurants in the Seoul and Gyeonggi regions against seven flour milling companies, including CJ CheilJedang(097950) and Daehan Flour Mills(001130). The claim amount is 1 million won per plaintiff. However, it said it plans to increase the amount after analyzing actual purchase records and normal prices.
LKB Pyeongsan's lawsuit against the flour milling companies stems from their collusion on flour prices. In May, the Korea Fair Trade Commission imposed a total penalty surcharge of 671 billion won on seven flour milling companies, including CJ CheilJedang, Daehan Flour Mills, Sajo Dongaone(008040), Samyang Corporation(145990), 대선제분, 삼화제분, and Hantop(002680), saying they colluded on flour prices 24 times over about six years. The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said flour prices rose 38% to 74% after their collusion.
The Chinese restaurants that brought the suits said they had no choice but to raise prices due to the companies' collusion, which led to damages such as decreased sales and customer attrition. Flour is a primary materials and supplies used for jjajangmyeon, dumplings, and tangsuyuk sold by Chinese restaurants. According to LKB Pyeongsan, which represents the suits, each plaintiff purchased between 10.47 million won and 99.54 million won worth of flour during the period of the seven companies' collusion (November 2019 to October 2025).
Attorney Jeong Tae-won of LKB Pyeongsan said, "The burden arising from collusion by corporations with oligopolistic market power has been passed on to small business owners and consumers," and added, "We hope corporations will actively negotiate with harmed businesses for swift settlements and compensation rather than contesting every issue and prolonging the litigation."