Joo Byung-kee: "Coupang Must Shoulder Responsibility Matching Its Growth and Protect Rights of Small Businesses"

Fair Trade Commission Chairperson Joo Byung-kee stated, "Coupang must fulfill its social responsibilities as much as it has grown and become a company that protects the rights and interests of smaller partners."

During the National Assembly audit of the FTC held at the National Assembly today (the 12th), Chairperson Joo made the remarks in response to a point raised by Representative Kang Joon-hyun of the Democratic Party of Korea that dispute mediation cases concerning small and medium-sized merchants related to Coupang are surging, saying, "This goes against the market economy norm that as a company grows in size, it must respect its social responsibilities."

Chairperson Joo added, "It is true that Coupang's sales scale has grown rapidly recently, and it is also true that it has provided satisfaction to consumers," adding, "In that process, pursuing unfair profits must be minimized."

Regarding the current level of FTC surcharges for collusion, he drew a line by stating, "I do not think they are excessive."

In response to a point by Representative Park Dae-chul of the People Power Party that global collusion surcharges amounted to 3.3 billion dollars last year, while South Korea reached 1.3 billion dollars by September this year, accounting for about 40%, making them excessive, Chairperson Joo assessed, "We are imposing surcharges at a level that sufficiently exceeds ill-gotten gains," and added, "The reason collusion does not decrease is because the surcharges are not sufficient compared to the unfair profits gained through collusion."

To the opinion of Representative Seo Il-jun of the People Power Party that corporate management is difficult due to excessive surcharges, he said, "We will manage the process so that investigators can conduct surcharge investigations more transparently, objectively, and rigorously than now."

At the same time, he emphasized, "What is even more concerning is letting off companies that truly deserve to be punished," adding, "Only by imposing sanctions equivalent to the unfair profits acquired by companies can unfair practices be prevented from recurring."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.