just! The Korean government has taken action! 23 shipping companies fined 96.2 billion won for alleg

On January 18, the Korea Fair Trade Commission issued an announcement on its official website on Tuesday, saying that it found that 23 domestic and foreign shipping companies were suspected of colluding to increase the minimum freight for export routes from South Korea to Southeast Asia for up to 15 years. based on this, a total of 962 A penalty of 100 million won (about 512 million yuan).

The South Korean government said the monopoly of these companies met 541 times in the 15 years between 2003 and 2018, and reached 120 agreements on freight rates for import and export routes between South Korea and Southeast Asian countries. The aim is to take concerted action to raise ocean freight charges, among other items. This organization was founded by three Korean companies in 2003, and foreign shipping companies joined later.

Among the companies punished on Tuesday, in addition to 12 local companies such as Hyundai Merchant Marine and Koryo Shipping, there are 11 foreign companies, and the remaining 11 foreign shipping companies are CNC, Evergreen Shipping, Wan Hai Shipping, Yang Ming Shipping, Sealand. Maersk Asia, PIL, New Golden Sea Shipping, Gold Star Lines, OOCL, SITC Container Lines, TS Lines.

It is reported that this is also the first time that South Korea’s anti-monopoly authority has imposed a penalty on a shipping company’s anti-competitive behavior, which also means that the industry’s long-standing tradition of shipping alliances is facing careful scrutiny by regulators.

It is worth mentioning that the scope of this penalty is that shipping companies colluded to increase freight rates from South Korea to the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and other regions. The Korean anti-monopoly department is investigating whether these companies also colluded to increase the minimum freight rates for routes from South Korea to other regions. The fines announced on Tuesday are also far lower than the 800 billion won that the ministry mentioned in its investigation report last May, because the ministry did not punish shipping companies for colluding to raise prices on import routes.

The Korea Shipping Association (KSA) also said it planned to file an administrative lawsuit over Tuesday's fine, Yonhap News Agency reported. The association said the collective conduct of shipping companies over the past 40 years has been regulated by the Department of Land and Oceans and the Shipping Act. The KSA also said the penalty could trigger another crisis in the industry like Hanjin Shipping went bankrupt five years ago.

The reason why the shipping company has the confidence to challenge the anti-monopoly agency is that there is also the support of the legislature and even the government department behind it. Last year, lawmakers from South Korea's ruling party proposed to amend the bill to make it clear that shipping alliances do not fall under the jurisdiction of the anti-monopoly law. The Department of Homeland and Oceans and related parliamentary committees have also stated that the marine alliance is a legal act under the Shipping Act.

Shipping companies have long been exempt from anti-competitive laws in most major economies, including the European Unio and the United States. For decades, the U.S. Justice Department has urged Congress to remove antitrust immunity for shipping companies, arguing that it no longer makes sense and undermines the free-market economy.

Since the outbreak of the epidemic in 2020, shipping prices have experienced many rounds of soaring. In the face of "astronomical freight rates", even if the government mediates, it is often "the ship makes sense for the ship, and the cargo makes sense for the goods."