The Korea Communications Commission late Tuesday slapped three local telecom businesses with a total of 2.1 billion won ($1.88 million) in fines for violating the country’s mobile device distribution law in their sales to foreign customers.
The communications authority said its committee decided to impose the penalties, citing that excessive incentives on the sales of mobile devices and services to foreigners could discriminate against other consumers.
The KCC ordered SK Telecom to pay 794 million won, KT 361 million won and LG Uplus 969 million won. It also issued a total of 45 million won in fines to 43 retail shops of the telecom firms.
The commission had found that the retailers doled out more than 15 percent of device retail prices (more than 195,000 won per device) to more than 5,300 foreigners, which is a violation of the nation’s regulation on device subsidies.
The subsidy regulation was put in place in 2014 to curb overheated competition in the telecom market, but it expires in September. The KCC, however, said the commission has no plan yet to raise the subsidy bar, vowing to continue its crackdown on violations.
By Song Su-hyun (
song@heraldcorp.com)
