Price Fixing
The Fair Trade Commission uncovered a 14-year-long price fixing practice by Japanese and German bearing manufacturers in Korea.
The commission announced on Nov. 16 that it imposed a fine of 77.8 billion won (US$71 million) on the companies involved and was going to accuse them of fixing the prices of bearings for various applications between 1998 and 2012. According to the commission, Japanese firms such as NSK, JTEKT, and Fujikoshi have run a price-fixing cartel since the 1990s and engaged in collusion in Korea, led by the main and branch offices of the NSK. German and Korean companies such as Schaeffler Korea and Hanwha joined in on the cartel as well.
During the period, they raised the prices of their commercial bearings by 80 to 100 percent in Korea. The commission investigated 35 foreigners for two years for this case, which is the largest scale of price fixing the commission has ever exposed.