South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) has fined Motorola Korea Inc. KRW696 million (US$729,000) for conspiring with three of its Korea-based dealers to rig bids for the supply of mobile telecommunications devices to Korea’s police agencies. The contracts affected by the conspiracy are for trunked radio systems, which are designed to provide maximum capacity two-way radio communications and are common among municipal agencies such as police and fire departments.
Although Motorola Korea Inc. did not bid on the affected contracts, it was fined for facilitating collusion among its distributors. The distributors – Leenos Corp., Signal Information Communications and Hoemyeong – were fined a combined KRW282 million (US$295,000) for their roles in the conspiracy. Motorola has indicated that it will wait to review the KFTC’s forthcoming written decision before deciding whether to pursue an appeal.
