Namyang Dairy Products will be fined 500 million won ($420,000) for its past unfair practices towards retailers instead of the original fine of 12.3 billion won, the Fair Trade Commission confirmed Sunday.
The decision is in accordance with a court decision passed in January 2015 by the Seoul High Court and affirmed by the Supreme Court in June, citing lack of evidence for the full penalty.
In 2013, the FTC reported Namyang to prosecutors for bullying sales agents and retailers into buying excess or unpopular inventory, and shipping products that were close to their expiration dates.
A leaked audio recording of a Namyang employee verbally abusing a retailer on the phone provided strong support for those charges and led to a widespread boycott of Namyang’s products in 2013.
Namyang Dairy Products' leaders apologize to the public at a press conference on May 9, 2015. (Herald DB)
When the Supreme Court confirmed the lesser penalty, the FTC tried to dig up more evidence to support their claims. The Commission searched computers in 2,000 different sales branches, but the evidence had been erased ostensibly by system updates within the company.
The Minjoo Party of Korea lawmaker Min Byung-doo accused the company of purposefully deleting those files to avoid penalties last year, but there is little evidence to support that allegation.
By Won Ho-jung (
hjwon@heraldcorp.com)
