The Korean Fair Trade Commission is beginning deliberations about seven major milling companies accused of years of collusion to set flour prices. If the judges that collusion occurred, the commission can issue a fine of up to 20% of sales. Fines imposed are estimated to reach up to 1.16 trillion won.
The involved companies accounted for 88% of the Korean B2B flour market as of 2024, and the estimated sales affected by the collusion amounted to 5.8 trillion won.
The commission's examiner submitted a report to the plenary session stating that the companies, including CJ Cheil Jedang and Korea Mill, violated the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (Fair Trade Act) by setting flour prices and intentionally limiting the volume of flour sent to each mill.
The report included an opinion that the companies should be ordered to correct the collusion and fined in light of the seriousness of the offense. It went on to highlight that each mill should order a price re-determination to voluntarily reset flour prices.
The commission has stated it will actively use price re-determination orders for the first time in 20 years to substantially cut prices.