The Fair Trade Commission said on Wednesday that it will start a large-scale crackdown on unfair business practices next month, especially on high commission fees at major retail companies.
The nation’s antitrust regulator revealed the plan on the first anniversary of the government’s shared-growth initiative between small and large companies.
“We will monitor whether retail giants have carried out fee cuts as promised early this month. We will compare the fees paid by smaller traders and luxury goods makers,” the FTC said in a press release.
Major department stores, supermarket chains and home-shopping channels are suspected to have imposed relatively lower commission fees on luxury brands that attract consumers, while securing higher fees through smaller businesses.
Amid growing complaints among smaller traders, the FTC on Sept. 6 agreed with 11 CEOs of retail companies to lower the fees by 3-7 percent and to improve other contract conditions from October.
Along with toughening surveillance on unfair business practices, the FTC also plans to reform related laws as part of its efforts to spread shared-growth culture across industries.
“We will step up efforts to correct unfair contracts, including enforcing price cuts, while encouraging companies to join the shared-growth initiative,” the FTC said.
Since 2007, 181 large companies and their affiliates have agreed with 74,669 subcontractors for shared-growth efforts, according to the FTC.
By Lee Ji-yoon (
jylee@heraldcorp.com)
