Ftc Fines Omya Korea for Price Fixing

By Baek Byung-yeul

The antitrust agency has imposed a fine of 11.24 billion won ($9.

9 million) on three raw material suppliers for paper making over price fixing, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said Sunday.

The agency said it levied a 772 billion won fine on Omya Korea, 305 billion won on Taekyung Industrial and 463 million won on GMC

The FTC added it decided to report Omya Korea, a subsidiary of the Switzerland-based Omya Group, to prosecutors on suspicions the firm violated the Fair Trade Act.

The three firms are the main suppliers of ground calcium carbonate, a raw material used in paper making that accounts for about 8 percent to 15 percent of the production cost of various types of paper

The FTC elaborated those three firms agreed to eliminate competition among them and increase the price of the raw material over two-and-a-half years from March 2013 to September 2015, adding that CEOs and executives from the three firms had dozens of meetings at restaurants and golf courses. As a result of their price fixing actions, the three suppliers raised the price of the raw materials between 5 percent and 10 percent three times.

The...