The nation’s antitrust watchdog said Thursday that it fined Lotte PS Net, an automated teller machine operator of Lotte Group, 649 million won ($569,000) for offering favors to its sister company Lotte Aluminum.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, Lotte PS Net used to purchase ATMs directly from local manufacturer NeoICP.

However, from 2009, the company started purchasing the same NeoICP machines at higher prices through Lotte Aluminum, with the aim of providing commission to then-financially struggling sister firm, the agency said.

In the next three years, Lotte Aluminum purchased 3,534 ATMs from NeoICP at around 66.6 billion won, while Lotte PS Net paid more than 70.7 billion won to repurchase the machines.

The decision was said to have been ordered directly by Lotte Group’s Shin Dong-bin, then vice president of the nation’s fifth largest conglomerate in terms of assets, officials said.

Even though the prosecution cleared Lotte of misappropriation charges related to the case in June, the FTC had continued investigations into the allegations of unfair intra-group business under the Fair Trade Law.

Lotte, citing the earlier decision by the prosecution, resisted the antitrust agency’s criticized measure on Thursday.

“We are going to soon decide whether to take legal actions against the FTC,” the company said in a statement.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)