Court upholds price-fixing fine against Samsung Fire & Marine

Samsung Fire & Marine Insurance suffered a blow to its brand image when the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday in favor of the nation’s anti-trust watchdog’s decision to fine the company for price-fixing with other insurers.

The court said the Fair Trade Commission’s imposition of fines on the Samsung firm, which allegedly agreed with other insurers on discount levels for insurance products and lower reimbursement payouts, was just.

The Samsung insurer had filed a nullification suit against the FTC over the fine imposition.

In 2008, the FTC imposed about 10 billion won in fines on six insurance companies including Samsung Insurance, which received a 1.85 billion won fine, for price-rigging schemes.

The antitrust body said that 14 life insurers and 10 non-life insurers agreed on slashing discounts and reimbursements on the insurance fee of group casualty insurance products.

Samsung Insurance, however, filed a countersuit arguing that the agreement was not a restraint on competition according to the fair trade law, but a gathering of insurers’ opinions for a discussion during the Financial Supervisory Service’s policy-making procedure.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)