{"id":133715,"date":"2026-08-27T06:43:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/133715\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T06:43:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T06:43:11","slug":"coupang-and-the-fair-trade-commission-ftc-faced-off-again-seven-days-before-the-investigation-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/133715\/","title":{"rendered":"Coupang and the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) faced off again. Seven days before the investigation, he.."},"content":{"rendered":"

Coupang Refuses On-Site Investigation and Suspends Execution
“7 Days”…The Fair Trade Commission has clashed over ‘right to investigate’ following fines
An analysis of hard-line responses after criticism from U.S. political circles <\/p>\n

\"A \uc0ac\uc9c4 \ud655\ub300 A Coupang distribution center in downtown Seoul. Not related to the article [Yonhap News] <\/p>\n

Coupang and the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) faced off again. Seven days before the investigation, he blocked the investigation four times on the grounds that there was no prior notice and even applied for suspension of execution to the court. Following the 2024 fine sanctions, this time, it seems to be spreading to a conflict over the FTC’s “right to investigate” itself.<\/p>\n

According to the industry on the 27th, the FTC was scheduled to conduct an on-site investigation into Coupang’s alleged violations of the large-scale distribution industry law from the 19th to the 28th. However, from the first day of the investigation, Coupang did not respond to the investigation, and it did not proceed as planned.<\/p>\n

It was not once that the FTC visited the site. Coupang did not respond to the investigation for the same reason, although it attempted to investigate four times from the 19th to the 24th. Since then, Coupang has filed an administrative lawsuit to cancel the FTC’s decision and disposition on the field investigation and applied for suspension of execution. The Fair Trade Commission withdrew from the site on the 24th after confirming the filing of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

The starting point of this collision is ‘7 days’.<\/p>\n

Coupang insists that the FTC should inform the investigation in writing seven days before the start of the investigation based on Article 17 of the Framework Act on Administrative Investigations. Under the current law, administrative investigations require prior notice in principle, but some of the laws under the jurisdiction of the Fair Trade Commission are excluded from the application.<\/p>\n

Coupang’s problem is that the large-scale distribution industry law is not on the list of exceptions. After the Framework Act on Administrative Investigations was enacted in 2007, the Large Distribution Business Act was enacted in 2011 and the Agency Act in 2015, but neither law was separately stipulated as an exception. From Coupang’s point of view, the logic is that if it is an investigation under the Large Distribution Business Act, there should be seven days’ notice in principle.<\/p>\n

\"Joo \uc0ac\uc9c4 \ud655\ub300 Joo Byung-ki, chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, attends a plenary session of the National Policy Committee held at the National Assembly on the 26th to give greetings on the passage of the fiscal 2025 settlement bill. [Yonhap News] <\/p>\n

The FTC sees the legal system differently. They say that investigation-related regulations in the Large Distribution Business Act should be applied first over the Basic Administrative Investigation Act.<\/p>\n

The Large-scale Distribution Business Act requires the Fair Trade Act to be applied mutatis mutandis to the FTC’s investigation and hearing opinions. Based on this provision, the Fair Trade Commission explains that large-scale distribution law investigations are an exception to the obligation to notify in advance, just like the Fair Trade Act.<\/p>\n

Investigation practices so far also strengthen the FTC. The Fair Trade Commission has been conducting an on-site investigation without prior notice to companies in the process of confirming violations of the large-scale distribution industry law. Coupang also responded to the same survey in the past.<\/p>\n

At the beginning of this year, the atmosphere was different. In February, the FTC imposed a fine of 2.185 billion won on Coupang, believing that it demanded suppliers cut supply prices or advertising costs to meet its target margin. At that time, Coupang responded to the on-site investigation ahead of the sanctions without any objection.<\/p>\n

This time, he headed to the court from the investigation stage. Industry sources say the level of response has changed from before, given that Coupang has begun to question the legal basis for the FTC investigation itself.<\/p>\n

There is also a view that connects with the recent movements of the U.S. political circle. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee argued in a report last month that the South Korean government is using discriminatory regulations and coercive investigation methods against U.S. companies. Analysts say that Coupang may be more active in confronting domestic regulators at a time when criticism continues in the U.S. over the Korean government’s investigation and sanctions on Coupang.<\/p>\n

There is an atmosphere within the FTC that it is difficult to take this issue lightly. As there has been virtually no precedent for companies to reject the on-site investigation itself, it could affect the response of other companies in the future.<\/p>\n

Joo Byung-ki, chairman of the Fair Trade Commission, told the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Budget and Accounts on the previous day (26th) that “unprecedented things have happened” regarding Coupang’s refusal to investigate the field.<\/p>\n

However, there are limited sanctions that the FTC can impose on Coupang only by refusing to investigate. The upper limit of fines for refusal to conduct on-site investigations is 200 million won. The Fair Trade Commission plans to actively respond to the court while continuing its investigation into the large-scale distribution industry law on other companies.<\/p>\n

The question is when the investigation into Coupang can resume. If the court accepts the request for suspension of execution, it will be difficult to resume the investigation immediately, and if it leads to a lawsuit on the merits, it may take a considerable amount of time to make a final decision.<\/p>\n

If the court accepts Coupang’s claim, there is a possibility that the impact will not stop at just one Coupang. This is because if it is determined that notification is needed seven days in advance even for a large-scale distribution law investigation, the FTC’s on-site investigation method itself should be reviewed. In particular, there are concerns that if the investigation is notified in advance, the effectiveness of the ex officio investigation may decrease due to data concealment or deletion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Coupang Refuses On-Site Investigation and Suspends Execution “7 Days”…The Fair Trade Commission has clashed over ‘right to investigate’…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":133716,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[381],"tags":[68084,426,604,68080,68081,68083,68085,68082],"class_list":["post-133715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-coupang","tag-basic-administrative-investigation-law","tag-coupang","tag-fair-trade-commission","tag-large-scale-distribution-business-law","tag-on-site-investigation","tag-prior-notice","tag-supplier","tag-suspension-of-execution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=133715"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/133715\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/133716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=133715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=133715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=133715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}