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At one time, the price of ice cream went up all at once, and when we looked into why, it turned out that companies had been fixing prices for nearly four years.
The Fair Trade Commission imposed a fine of 135 billion won on these five companies.
This is reporter Jang Hoon-kyung.
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Five ice cream companies were caught for collusion: Lotte Confectionery, Binggrae, and Haitai Confectionery.
These companies have dominated 85% of the domestic market.
First, they agreed to stop competing for retail stores, such as local supermarkets.
In 2016 alone, they competed for stealing and stealing more than 700 retail stores by lowering delivery prices.
After confirming that collusion was possible, a full-scale price adjustment began.
Since 2017, we have set the upper limit for support for retail stores and agencies, and have also reduced discounts and events such as '2+1', which are often offered at convenience stores.
In 2019, we raised not only the delivery price but also the selling price of ice cream itself by up to 20%.
[Cho Hong-sun/Director of Cartel Investigation Bureau, Fair Trade Commission: Detecting and sanctioning a covert collusion that took place over four years, which caused the price increase of ice cream, a representative national snack in Korea…
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The Fair Trade Commission imposed a fine of 135 billion won on these companies, saying that there was a precedent for price fixing in 2007 as well.
In addition, Binggrae and Lotte Food, which did not cooperate faithfully with the investigation, decided to file a complaint with the prosecution.