South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission is set to report Naver Chairman Lee Hae-jin to prosecutors for alleged violation of antitrust laws, officials said Sunday. The antitrust watchdog said Lee is accused of omitting 20 affiliates, including Line Friends and some of his own and relatives’ companies, when submitting data to the FTC in 2015. The company was also found to have omitted eight affiliates owned by executives of nonprofit companies wholly owned by Naver in 2017 and 2018. Ea

Industry Feb. 16, 2020

An increasing number of disputes are being reported between consumers and travel agents over trip cancellation fees, as the coronavirus outbreak continues to stifle international travel. The nation’s major travel agencies have been waiving cancellation fees for travel products such as flights, hotels and car rentals involving China, Hong Kong and Macao. However, as the government has further encouraged people to limit their travel to Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapo

Industry Feb. 13, 2020

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has slapped convenience store chain BGF Retail with a fine of 1.6 billion won ($1.31 million) for violating a subcontracting law, officials said Thursday. The Fair Trade Commission said CU, one of the leading convenience store chains in Korea, was found to have forced subcontractors to pay more than 50 percent of costs for buy-one, get-one-free marketing activities between 2014 and 2016.  During the period, the retail firm set up an operation strat

Industry Feb. 13, 2020

All of Hyundai Motor Group’s listed subsidiaries will introduce an electronic voting system, with the aim of shareholder friendly management, the group said Wednesday. Until last year, Hyundai Glovis, Hyundai Bng Steel and Hyundai Motor Securities had preemptively introduced the e-voting system to allow wider participation from shareholders. This year, the remaining nine listed subsidiaries decided to adopt the electronic voting. The units are Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, Hyundai Ste

Mobility Feb. 12, 2020

Korea Aerospace Industries said Thursday it is participating in the Singapore Airshow 2020 to showcase a variety of high-tech aircraft. The Singapore Airshow, which kicked off Tuesday, is one of the world’s three largest air shows, along with the Paris Airshow and Farnborough Airshow. During the six-day event, KAI presents various aircraft, including light combat aircraft FA-50, basic training aircraft KT-1 and transport utility helicopter Suorin. It also displays high-tech aircraft i

Industry Feb. 12, 2020

Capping off the historic moment at the 92nd Academy Awards on Sunday was a relatively unfamiliar face, thanking everyone from her brother to the Academy and general moviegoers for the best film win. That was Lee Mi-kyung, vice chairman of South Korea’s retail and entertainment mogul CJ Group, who -- without the need for a translator -- shared her joy with director Bong Joon-ho and the cast and crew of the first non-English-language film to win the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scien

Industry Feb. 10, 2020

The continued spread of China’s new coronavirus is hitting the South Korean economy hard, adversely affecting many sectors including travel, tourism, services, airlines and auto firms. Among them, the tourism industry has been more severely affected due to fears of infections in tourist spots and airports where many people gather. Hana Tour, the nation’s biggest tour agency, saw overseas travel demand dip around 50 percent last month. It is urging employees to apply for unpaid l

Industry Feb. 10, 2020

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Sunday it has slapped local construction firm Daebo Engineering & Construction with a 9.3 billion won ($7.84 million) fine for violating subcontracting laws. The Fair Trade Commission said the firm did not pay 247 million won to 196 subcontractors between 2016 and 2018. It was also found to have paid subcontractors promissory notes even though it received the payment in cash from its clients. The FTC said the payments were processed during the

Industry Feb. 9, 2020

Cho Hyun-ah, the eldest daughter of late Hanjin Group Chairman Cho Yang-ho, released a statement on Friday afternoon to denounce the board decision made by Hanjin KAL in the morning. In a joint statement with local activist fund Korea Corporate Governance Improvement and midsized builder Bando Engineering & Construction, she said the board decisions consisted of “improvised measures to obtain the votes of the shareholders just before the general shareholders’ meeting without s

Industry Feb. 7, 2020

Hanjin KAL, the holding company of Hanjin Group, held a board meeting on Friday, to have the chairman of the board of directors be elected by the board to separate the position of its company president and the board chair. The board also decided to reorganize the hotel and leisure business that former Korean Air Vice President Cho Hyun-ah -- who is engaged in a feud with her brother Cho Won-tae -- had been dedicated to. “The intention is to strengthen the role of the board of director

Industry Feb. 7, 2020

  GS Home Shopping said Thursday it has decided to close its headquarters until Saturday morning as one of its employees was infected with the new coronavirus. “As an employee was confirmed to be infected by the new coronavirus, the company has closed the headquarters building in Seoul in case of emergency,” the company said. During the period, the firm said it would thoroughly disinfect the entire building. All of its home shopping broadcasts will be replaced by rebroadcas

Industry Feb. 6, 2020

The National Pension Service’s growing interference in corporate management as it enforces stricter yardsticks on investments and recent revisions of commercial acts are raising the hackles of South Korean business circles. On Thursday, a forum on “Improving governance structure for national pension independence” was co-hosted by five business associations -- Korea Economic Research Institute, Korea Enterprises Federation, Korea Listed Companies Association, Federation of Mi

Industry Feb. 6, 2020

South Korea’s antitrust watchdog on Wednesday fined retailers Shinsegae and Woori Home Shopping 2.5 million won ($2,100) each for violating e-commerce laws. The Fair Trade Commission said the two firms were fined for their “nonrefundable stickers” that restricted the right of consumers to return a purchase and get a full refund if they open the package. The agency noted that Shinsegae posted a sticker on products -- sold on online shopping platform 11th Avenue from April

Industry Feb. 5, 2020

The National Pension Service has exercised its shareholder rights more actively since it adopted the stewardship code in 2018, said a local corporate tracker. On Wednesday, CEO Score released the results of a survey of 577 companies in which the NPS held shares and exercised its voting rights at shareholders meetings last year. It found that the NPS voted against initiatives proposed by companies 16.48 percent of the time, up from 11.85 percent a year earlier. The rate at which it approved

Industry Feb. 5, 2020

The nation’s largest automaker Hyundai Motor confirmed Tuesday it will suspend all production lines at local plants in phases due to the disruption of parts supplies from China. The decision follows three-hour talks between the labor union and management, and the suspension is expected to last until around Monday. The production shutdown is due mainly to the inventory shortage of wiring harnesses, which are mostly produced in China. Handmade wiring harnesses need to be laid on the fl

Industry Feb. 4, 2020