Republic of Korea: Issued ruling in FTC investigation into E-Mart for alleged violation of the Large-Scale Distribution Business Act

On 30 August 2023, the Fair Trade Commission (FTC) took action against E-Mart for allegedly breaching the procedures under the Large-Scale Distribution Industry Act. Specifically, E-Mart is accused of having entered into 809 dispatch agreements with suppliers' employees and accepted written requests for these agreements. According to Article 12 of the Act, large-scale distributors are generally prohibited from having supplier employees work at their premises. This prohibition serves to ensure that suppliers, often in weaker bargaining positions, follow a predefined procedure, including written agreements when receiving dispatch requests from large-scale distributors. The FTC determined that E-Mart's actions violated this procedure outlined in the Act. To prevent such violations in the future, corrective orders and warnings have been issued by the FTC.