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The Korea Herald
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THE INVESTOR
March 30, 2024

Retail & Consumer

FTC slaps W2b fine on Lotte, Shilla duty-free shops

  • PUBLISHED :March 29, 2017 - 14:26
  • UPDATED :March 29, 2017 - 15:22
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[THE INVESTOR] South Korea’s antitrust agency said on March 29 that it has imposed a combined 1.8 billion-won (US$1.60 million) fine on duty-free shop operators Lotte and Shilla for colluding on discount events.

Hotel Lotte, the operator of the country’s biggest Lotte Duty Free, and Hotel Shilla, the accommodations unit of Samsung Group that operates Shilla Duty Free, allegedly colluded to exclude electronic devices from their regular promotions held five times a year between September 2009 and May 2011, according to the Fair Trade Commission.




They did not offer discount coupons or mileage services to their customers who bought electronics like digital cameras, electric shavers and mobile phones, the watchdog said.

Such electronic devices marked a profit rate of 21-26 percent as of 2010, far lower than that of cosmetics with a range of 39-48 percent and sunglasses with 39-50 percent.

As a result, the companies took an undue profit of some 846 million won, the watchdog said.

By Alex Lee and newswires (alexlee@heraldcorp.com)

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