Citizen Group Urges Education Office to Actively Address School Uniform Companies' Collusion Damages

"Parents and Schools Suffer Economic Losses"
Call for Lawsuit to Return Unjust Profits

An education civic group in Gwangju has insisted that the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education must take active measures to compensate parents for damages caused by collusion in school uniform bidding in 2023.

The civic group "Citizens' Coalition for a Society Without Academic Cliques" stated in a press release the previous day, "It appears that the Office of Education is neglecting compensation efforts by using the difficulty in estimating the scale of damages as an excuse," and added, "Despite the clear economic losses suffered by parents and schools due to the collusion, the result is effectively exempting the school uniform suppliers from responsibility."

They further pointed out, "The preventive education on school uniform contract collusion, strengthening of quality and price management, and sanctions against violating companies proposed by the Office of Education are ineffective in remedying the damages that have already occurred," and emphasized, "Measures to prevent recurrence and relief for victims should be handled separately, and the attitude of neglecting damages and evading responsibility seriously undermines the fairness and credibility of administration."

The civic group also urged the Office of Education to calculate and disclose the amount of damages caused by collusion through cooperation with experts and relevant agencies, file claims for damages to recover the unjust profits of school uniform suppliers, and issue an apology regarding the school uniform collusion case.

They added, "The Office of Education should not passively respond in hopes that this incident will be forgotten in the local community, but rather demonstrate responsible administration," and warned, "If the Office of Education continues to evade responsibility for compensation, our organization will prepare to directly pursue claims for damages and correct the incompetent administration."

Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education building.

Meanwhile, some school uniform store owners in Gwangju were found guilty of violating the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act after colluding in advance on successful bidders and bid amounts for 16.1 billion won worth of school uniform purchase bids placed 289 times by 147 middle and high schools between 2021 and the end of 2023. Twenty-nine store owners were prosecuted and sentenced to fines ranging from 3 million to 12 million won each.