The Fair Trade Commission said Sunday that it fined Samsung Electronics and two of its executive officers a combined 400 million won ($355,000) for hindering an investigation by antitrust regulators.
The fines are the highest-ever imposed for such an offense, the nation’s antitrust watchdog said.
Last March the FTC raided Samsung’s Suwon plant in Gyeonggi Province as part of an investigation into the pricing policy of local handset makers.
However, security officials there delayed the entry of authorities, while other officials subject to the probe disposed of related documents and replaced their PCs.
Following the company’s “internal scenario,” executive officers refused to cooperate with investigators and deleted all related data on company computers, the FTC said.
Along with fines, the antitrust regulator also imposed a penalty of 2.38 billion won on Samsung for a deceptive pricing policy that inflated the supply prices of its cellphones.
“We imposed the highest-ever amount of fines considering Samsung has repeatedly obstructed our investigations thus far,” a FTC official said.
“We plan to respond strictly to companies that hinder antitrust probes, taking legal action aggressively.”
By Lee Ji-yoon (
jylee@heraldcorp.com)
