The Fair Trade Commission of South Korea (KFTC) announced that several companies, including Japanese MOL, have breached South Korean antitrust law with respect to car carrier services.
Although the KFTC announced that they found the violation of South Korean antitrust law and imposed a fine, MOL and its subsidiary company, Nissan Motor Car Carrier Co., Ltd. (NMCC) was exempted from all penalty, including the fine, “because KFTC granted MOL’s and NMCC’s joint application under the KFTCs leniency program”, the company explained in an official statement.
“MOL offers its sincere apologies to its valued customers and to the society for their concerns this may have caused” and added: “We are taking the KFTC’s announcement very seriously. We are making our best efforts to prevent any recurrence of such issues, to further enhance MOL’s compliance structure, and to regain public confidence.”
Recently, Japanese Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK) was also convicted of criminal cartel conduct and is ordered to pay a fine of $25 million to Australian authorities. Other companies fined by the KFTC earlier are K Line, Hoegh, Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics (WWL), Eastern Car Liner (ECL), etc.
