Prosecutors Uncover Price-Fixing Collusion Worth Over 20 Trillion Won in One Year

Bid Rigging in School Uniforms, Ice Cream, and Built-in Apartment Furniture
Disruption of Daily Living Costs in Clothing, Food, and Housing... Market Order Violation Cases

The prosecution announced that it has intensively cracked down on serious unfair collusive practices over the past year, strictly punishing the "price increase cartel."

The Anti-Corruption Department of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Shin Bong-su) announced on the 1st that it uncovered collusive offenders who caused price increases through serious unfair collusion in markets closely related to citizens' daily lives, such as education, housing, and food, thereby increasing the burden on ordinary people.

Over the past year, the prosecution has intensively cracked down on serious unfair collusive practices, uncovering collusion in areas such as ▲ school uniform bidding ▲ apartment built-in furniture bidding ▲ multi-family housing fire insurance bidding ▲ ice cream price collusion ▲ chicken and Samgyetang chicken price and quantity ▲ rebar procurement bidding ▲ railroad sleeper bidding.

According to the prosecution, in the case of school uniforms, companies gained about 3.2 billion KRW in unfair profits, causing the price of one school uniform to rise by about 60,000 KRW. Apartment built-in furniture, valued at about 23 trillion KRW, caused an increase in apartment sale prices, and apartment fire insurance generated about 13 billion KRW in unfair profits.

Four domestic ice cream manufacturers obtained about 10 billion KRW in unfair profits through ice cream price collusion, and the collusion on chicken and Samgyetang chicken prices, valued at about 14 trillion KRW, caused retail price increases. Additionally, the collusion in rebar procurement bidding, valued at about 7 trillion KRW, resulted in a national treasury loss of about 670 billion KRW.

Since June last year, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office Fair Trade Investigation Division (Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-seop) has closely cooperated with the Fair Trade Commission to intensively investigate cases that disturbed living prices and violated market order through collusive acts across all areas of daily life, including clothing, food, and housing.