The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) will hold a deliberation today (the 5th) to decide on the level of sanctions regarding the collusion case of sales incentives among the three major domestic mobile carriers.
Previously, the KFTC sent an examination report to the three telecom companies, warning of a possible imposition of fines amounting to up to 5.5 trillion won.
We will connect with our reporter to get more details.
Reporter Kim Dae-yeon, I hear the KFTC is holding a full meeting to review the collusion allegations against the three telecom companies?
Yes, the KFTC is holding its second full session today to discuss the level of sanctions against SK Telecom, KT, and LG Uplus.
They will make a judgment on the allegations that the three telecom companies colluded in their sales incentives. The final conclusion is expected to be reached within this month.
The issue raised by the KFTC is that the three carriers shared data on mobile number portability performance and adjusted sales incentives to maintain a similar number of subscribers.
The KFTC is considering imposing fines of up to 5.5 trillion won on the telecom companies based on estimated sales.
According to last year’s National Assembly audit, the maximum amount of the fines would be 2.2 trillion won for SK Telecom, 1.7 trillion won for KT, and 1.6 trillion won for LG Uplus.
This amount exceeds the combined annual operating profit of 3.5 trillion won for the three telecom companies last year.
The potential fines are nearly double each company’s operating profit.
There are concerns within the industry that fines in the trillion-won range could hinder investments in AI, new businesses, and 6G technologies.
There is also considerable concern regarding the burden of reducing telecommunications fees.
Particularly, if such astronomical fines become a reality, significant blows to their performance seem inevitable.
This has been Kim Dae-yeon reporting from the Korea Economic TV newsroom.