The head of South Korea's antitrust watchdog said Monday the agency will intensify its crackdown on large retailers and franchise headquarters abusing their power in deals with smaller business partners.

"We will step up our efforts to prevent large retailers and franchise headquarters from engaging in coercive practices such as abusing their market power in transactions," Noh Dae-lae, the head of the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), told lawmakers during a parliamentary audit session.

The FTC is also closely looking into "deep-rooted" unfair business practices such as delayed payment, forced price cuts and technology misuse by large businesses, he said.

In a related move, the watchdog said it has launched its own probe into state-run firms on suspicions that they may have abused their market power or provided unjustified support to their affiliates, hurting fair market competition. (Yonhap)