[Case] Dr. J. W. Cho, successfully represented the KFTC in the bearings cartel case before the Supreme Court of Korea
On March 5, 2015, the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) imposed remedies (orders restraining further violations and prohibiting information exchanges) and fines against Japanese and Korean companies that manufacture, import or sell bearings for commercial sales in the Korean market. The KFTC decided that the companies violated the Article 19 of The Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act by jointly fixing the price of bearings over the period from March 3, 1999 to March 31, 2012. In response, the companies filed an administrative litigation seeking cancellation of the remedies and fines, and on June 23, 2016, the Seoul High Court ruled in favor of the companies, saying, "Even if Hanwha, which manufactures, imports and sells bearings, had reached an agreement with Korean companies on maintaining and raising the price of bearings since 1999, the 5-year statute of limitations has expired because its unfair collaborative acts ended in January 2006”, and “Each company’s changes in the price of commercial bearings from 2008 to 2012 shows significant differences in the timing, frequency and scope of the increase, which makes it difficult to see as collusion."
Dr. Jung Wook Cho, a managing partner of KANGHO Attorneys at Law, represented the KFTC in its appeal, and on January 31, 2019, the Supreme Court of Korea sent the case back to the Seoul High Court (the KFTC won the whole case). The Supreme Court upheld the original judgment that the 5-year statute of limitations had been completed, but reversed and remanded the case to the Seoul High Court, explaining that the second corporate action from 2008 to 2012 might fall under the unfair collaborative acts.
Please refer to the following information for further details.
l KFTC’s decisions and press release: http://www.ftc.go.k
l Related news articles (in Korean):
- http://biz.khan.co.kr/khan_art_view.html?artid=201411161247331&code=920100
- https://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=101&oid=422&aid=0000089494
- http://news.kbs.co.kr/news/view.do?ncd=3319053&ref=A
