Companies that have been colluding on prices, including fees, while acting as agents for issuing various university certificates have been sanctioned by the Fair Trade Commission.
On the 25th, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it would impose corrective orders and fines totaling 1.162 billion KRW on three companies?Korea Information Certification (formerly Digital Zone), CI Tech, and I&Tech?for unfair joint conduct.
Universities issue certificates such as graduation, transcript, and enrollment certificates to current students and alumni through kiosks offline and internet certificate issuance sites online. The three companies caught this time supply certificate issuance kiosks to universities or act as agents for issuance through websites.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, these three companies, which occupy about 95% of the certificate issuance service market, planned collusion in early 2015 as competition intensified and profitability deteriorated.
In April 2015, they signed a "Business Cooperation Agreement (MOU)" that prohibited free donations of certificate issuance machines and stipulated that they would not supply below mutually agreed minimum prices.
The agreement also included provisions not to solicit each other's existing clients and to submit higher price estimates through mutual consultation even if a request for a quote was received.
By maintaining collusion in this manner for about seven years until May 2022, these three companies raised the supply price of certificate issuance machines by up to 2.7 times and kept the internet certificate issuance agency fee at 1,000 KRW per certificate, thereby earning unfair profits. The related sales revenue they generated during the collusion period was investigated to be 45.8 billion KRW.
The Fair Trade Commission pointed out, "University certificate issuance services are services that many citizens use routinely in relation to employment and other matters," adding, "Due to this collusion case, university finances were wasted, and the fee burden on job seekers increased."
It further stated, "We will continue to strengthen monitoring in areas closely related to the daily lives of citizens and respond strictly when violations of the law are detected."
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