대형 유통업체에 과징금 강화…정액→정률 부과 늘린다

The Fair Trade Commission is reinforcing heavy fines for major distribution companies engaging in unfair practices, including online retailers. They aim to apply penalty rates based on the proportion of the violation's monetary scale, and increase penalties for repeat offenders up to 100% of the maximum fine. The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 27th that the revised regulation will be open for public comment from October 6th to September 16th.

This major overhaul focuses on expanding the use of fixed-rate penalties. Under current law, fixed-rate penalties are used when calculating the financial scale of a violation is difficult, but now they plan to replace this with a two-step system. If the violation amount can be calculated, the penalty will be a percentage of that amount.

If not, the penalty will be a fixed rate applied to the related payment received. The new rate ranges from 80% to 200%, up from the current 60% to 140%, and the penalty categories will be divided into four instead of three. For repeat violations, the penalty weight will be increased from a maximum of 50% of past violations to 100% over a 5-year period.

Penalties for cooperation during investigations and self-audits will be reduced from a maximum of 20% to 10% and 50% to 10%, respectively. The commission plans to finalize the revised regulation and notices during this legislative and administrative review period this year.