Washington – A new study by the CCIA Research Center finds that South Korea’s competition authority imposes penalties on U.S. companies at rates four to seven times higher than those applied to Korean companies relative to their business activity in the country, and approximately 80 to 90 times higher than those applied to Chinese companies.
The study, The KFTC’s Uneven Hand, examines a decade of enforcement decisions by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) from 2016 through 2025. It finds that U.S.-headquartered companies accounted for 22.8% of total penalties despite representing a substantially smaller share of business activity in Korea. Of the KRW 6.7 trillion (approximately $5.6 billion) in penalties imposed during the period, U.S. companies accounted for KRW 1.52 trillion (approximately $1.3 billion).
The findings suggest that differences in enforcement are concentrated in cases where the KFTC has greater discretion over penalty calculations, raising concerns about whether U.S. companies receive treatment comparable to domestic competitors.
The following may be attributed to the report’s author, Trevor Wagener, CCIA’s Chief Economist and Director of the CCIA Research Center:
“The data point to a troubling disparity in how South Korea’s competition authority penalizes U.S. companies. The differences are especially pronounced where the Commission has discretion over the sales used to calculate penalties. U.S. trade officials should seek clear, enforceable commitments that competition rules and penalties are applied consistently, regardless of a company’s nationality.”
