Korean enterprises have paid more than 3 trillion won ($2.8 billion won) in antitrust fines in foreign markets over the past 16 years.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, foreign antitrust regulators have imposed on Korean businesses, such as LG Electronics and Samsung SDI, fines totaling 3.31 trillion won for fixing product prices through methods such as cartel practices.

The violation of the competition law was the most serious in the United States in terms of fines. The U.S. regulator has fined Korean firms more than $1 billion won collectively.

“Since several firms were slapped with antitrust fines totaling $1.57 million for rigging prices of a biochemical product in 1996 in the first case of its kind, Korean enterprises have been subject to collective penalties of more than $1.27 billion,” the FTC said in a report.

LG Display was fined $400 million for fixing prices of thin film transistor liquid crystal display, or TFT-LCD, panel products by the U.S. Justice Department in 2008.

The company also had to suffer fines from regulators in the European Union.

In 2005, Samsung Electronics was slapped with a $300 million penalty for fixing memory chip prices with its competitors in the U.S. market.

Two other chipmakers involved in the case, Hynix Semiconductor of Korea and Infineon Technologies AG of Germany, were fined $185 million and $160 million, respectively.

In 2007, the U.S. Justice Department charged Korean Air and U.K.-based British Airways with price fixing on passenger and cargo flights. Both airlines agreed to plead guilty and to pay $300 million each in criminal fines.

The charges filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said Korean Air conspired with competitors to fix rates on international air cargo shipments between at least 2000 and 2006.

An FTC official said the U.S. has tightened its crackdown on collusion and price fixing and if found guilty.

“Company executives are to face criminal charges and civil suits as well as large fines,” the official said.

By Kim Yon-se kys@heraldcorp.com)