Seoul High Court Suspends FTC Price-Reset Orders in Korean Paper Cartel Case

The Seoul High Court has suspended enforcement of price redetermination orders issued by the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) against four paper companies penalized for alleged price-fixing.

On Aug. 28, the court granted requests from Moorim SP, Moorim Paper and Moorim P&P to suspend the effect of the FTC’s orders. The suspension will remain in effect until the 30th day after the first-instance ruling in the companies’ main lawsuits. The court cited an urgent need to prevent irreparable harm.

A separate request by Hankuk Paper was also recently granted, according to legal sources. The decisions mean suspension requests have been accepted for four of the six paper companies penalized in the case: Moorim SP, Moorim Paper, Moorim P&P, Hankuk Paper, Hansol Paper and Hongwon Paper.

In April, the FTC said the six companies had met more than 60 times between February 2021 and December 2024 to agree on increases in benchmark prices for printing paper and reductions in discount rates. The agency imposed combined penalty surcharges of 338.3 billion won.

The FTC also ordered the companies to stop violating competition law and independently redetermine prices for printing paper products. According to the report, it was only the second time the commission had issued a price redetermination order and the first such action in 20 years, following a flour price-fixing case in April 2006.

Similar suspension requests were reportedly granted in cases involving price redetermination orders issued in a recent flour price-fixing case.

In May, the FTC imposed combined penalty surcharges of 671.045 billion won on seven major domestic flour millers for allegedly colluding on flour prices over six years and also issued price redetermination orders.

An FTC official said the agency would appeal the suspension decisions and seek to establish the legality of its actions in the main lawsuits.