▲ This photo shows bags of sugar on display at a supermarket. (Yonhap)

sugar firms-price-fixing

Regulator slaps 408.3 bln-won fine on 3 sugar manufacturers for price-fixing

By Kim Han-joo

SEOUL, Feb. 12 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's antitrust regulator said Thursday it has imposed a combined fine of 408.3 billion won (US$283.9 million) on the country's three major sugar manufacturers for fixing their prices.

CJ CheilJedang Corp., Samyang Corp. and TS Corporation Co. were found to have colluded to adjust sugar prices eight times between February 2021 and April 2025, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) said.

The penalty marks the second-largest fine ever imposed in a single price-fixing case and the largest ever on a per-company basis.

"The sugar industry has high barriers to entry, and the refiners exploited such barriers to secure stable profits while maximizing their gains through collusion," FTC Chairman Ju Biung-ghi told reporters.

The three companies held a combined market share of around 89 percent as of 2024, according to the FTC.

The companies generated combined sales of 3.29 trillion won through collusion over the cited period, it said.

According to the regulator, the companies agreed on the timing and extent of price increases to quickly reflect rising raw material costs when international sugar prices climbed.

They also jointly pressured food and beverage companies that resisted the proposed price hikes, the watchdog said.

When global raw sugar prices fell, the companies agreed to delay price cuts or reduce prices by less than the decline in raw material costs, the FTC said.

The watchdog emphasized that this is not the first time the three sugar refiners have been fined for collusion, following similar price-rigging practices in 2007.

The announcement came after President Lee Jae Myung earlier gave the instruction for all available measures to be mobilized to stabilize prices and prevent cases in which companies raise prices by abusing monopolistic power.

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