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few years ago, the Fair Trade Commission conducted a field investigation at Apple's office in Seoul.

It turned out that Apple interrupted the investigation by shutting down the internet in the office and blocking FTC employees.

The FTC has accused Apple to the prosecution.



This is reporter Han Sang-woo. 



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Apple Korea employee blocks the front of the Fair Trade Commission investigator and grabs his arm as he tries to enter the office.



This happened during a field investigation of Apple by the Fair Trade Commission in November 2017.




In June 2016, an attempt was made to connect to Apple's internal intranet to confirm the allegations of business interference with three domestic mobile carriers, the FTC said, but the office Internet was disconnected and not restored for a week.



Apple did not respond to requests to submit separate explanatory materials.



The Fair Trade Commission accused Apple Korea and its executives of interfering with the investigation and imposed a fine of 300 million won.



[Kim Seong-geun / FTC Service Industry Supervisory Manager: It can be said that this is the first case of sanctions against the act of obstructing access to data stored on the server in a situation where most companies have a computerized work environment.]



In response, Apple said, "

Operating a business.

"We are complying with the laws of all countries, and we cannot agree with the decision of the Fair Trade Commission."



Apple was investigated on charges of surrendering advertising and repair expenses to mobile carriers, but was freed from FTC sanctions by voluntary correction of a win-win fund worth 100 billion won last month.



(Video coverage: Kim Min-cheol, video editing: Park Ki-deok)