Homeplus fined for shifting promotion costs to suppliers
2023-01-29
來源： 開云體育app官方網站
A customer shops at Homeplus' grocery store in Seoul on Jan. 27. Yonhap
By Kim Jae-heun
Homeplus, one of Korea's three major discount store chains, was fined 2.42 billion won ($2.01 million), Wednesday, by the antitrust agency for shifting discount promotion costs to its suppliers between January 2017 and January 2021. The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) also ordered the retailer to correct the business practice.
Homeplus' supermarket unit, Homeplus Express, offered a marketing event of "buy one, get one free" for products of 45 suppliers including Ottogi and Yuhan Kimberly. It did not communicate this to the vendors and unfairly passed on sale promotion costs of 1.7 billion won ($1.42 million) to them.
And when Homeplus gave a 500 won discount for a 2,000 won product, it paid only 200 won of the difference and passed on the remaining 300 won burden to the suppliers.
Homeplus also violated the Fair Trade Act by delaying the issuance of 86 contracts signed with suppliers by up to three days during a four-year period.
"We haven't received the FTC's resolution so it is difficult to confirm if we have violated a specific law. However, we respect the FTC's decision and will take every measure to prevent the same issue from happening again," a Homeplus official said.
The FTC said it will check further on other retailers like shopping complexes and hypermarkets to see if they have been using similar unfair business practices.
The FTC had previously fined Homeplus in 2019 and ordered it to take corrective actions for abusing its power in agreements with vendors.
