(123rf)
South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has fined three paper producers a complete of 30.5 billion gained ($21.8 million) for colluding to boost newsprint costs.
In keeping with the Korea Truthful Commerce Fee on Thursday, Jeonju Paper, Daehan Paper and Paper Korea engaged in price-fixing by twice elevating costs by 60,000 gained per ton, in 2021 and 2022. The businesses additionally pressured native newspaper firms that resisted the value hikes by lowering their provide of newsprint.
The three firms are dominant gamers, collectively controlling the newsprint market in Korea.
Following the investigation, Jeonju Paper obtained the biggest advantageous of 14.85 billion gained, with Daehan Paper and Paper Korea fined 9.88 billion gained and 5.82 billion gained, respectively. Jeonju Paper was additionally referred to the prosecution for additional investigation.
The antitrust watchdog defined that the businesses appeared to have colluded to boost costs in an effort to keep up profitability amid shrinking home demand for newsprint and rising prices of imported supplies.
“These firms prompted important hurt to newspaper publishers by elevating the value of important newsprint, which additionally elevated the monetary burden on residents subscribing to print newspapers,” an FTC official stated. The typical month-to-month subscription charge for print newspapers in 2022 rose by 1,560 gained, a 21.52 p.c improve from 2020.
