According to the Korea Times, Hewlett-Packard (HP) is under investigation in South Korea over allegations of price fixing. The country’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) raided the offices on Monday, with officials removing computer files and documents, and questioning employees. While the Korean FTC did not elaborate on the exact reason for the investigation it follows a promise earlier this year that the FTC would tighten its monitoring of multinational technology firms. “It’s true that FTC officials visited our office last Friday,” a HP spokesperson said, but called the audit “routine”. A company statement said: “HP is co-operating fully with the Korea Fair Trade Commission in this routine audit. HP conducts its business with uncompromising integrity and we adhere to the highest standards of business ethics.”
South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC) earlier had slapped Samsung, LG, Pantech and mobile operators SK Telecom, KT Corp. and LG Uplus Corp with a combined fine of 45.3 billion won (about $40.1 million) over the biggest mobile manufacturers and operators guilty of colluding to fix prices and defraud consumers. Over on which, Korean FTC had issued an additional fine on South-Korean giant of 400 million won ($356,000) after Samsung was found to have obstructed the FTC’s investigation. The FTC’s latest fine is its largest yet in an obstruction case.
