South Korea's antitrust regulator said on Wednesday that it had decided to order Samsung Electronics to take corrective action because the company interfered with the business operations of its authorized retail stores.
According to the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC), Samsung Electronics required its agents to provide their retail price information between January 2017 and September 2023, even though this information was treated as a trade secret.
Samsung Electronics required agents to enter sales prices into the system and collected retail price information for 15,389 products at 159 sales points in Korea as of 2020, including refrigerators and washing machines.
The company used this data to evaluate the performance of its agents and reward them accordingly, but it has stopped this practice since October 2023 after regulators launched an investigation.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission stated, “This act violates the Franchise Transactions Fair Act and constitutes interference with the operation of the business,” adding that “information on sales margins is considered confidential because it may affect the terms and conditions of the parties' contracts.”
The agency said it will continue to monitor Samsung Electronics' unfair commercial interference and strictly enforce relevant laws to prevent recurrence.