- Strengthening complaint criteria for material omissions of affiliated companies -
- Establishing a principle of filing complaints for repeated violations of the same type within the past three years -
August 6, 2026
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC, Chairperson Biung-Ghi Ju) has prepared a proposed amendment to the "Guidelines on Filing Criminal Complaints for Violations of Reporting and Data Submission Obligations Related to Corporate Groups" and will give administrative notice of the proposed amendment for 20 days, from August 6 to August 26, 2026.
The Guidelines were established on September 2, 2020 to set specific criteria for determining whether to file criminal complaints for violations of corporate group-related reporting and data submission obligations under the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (including submission of false data or refusal to submit data for the designation of public disclosure-obligated corporate groups, etc.), and have remained unamended since their establishment.
This proposed amendment to the Guidelines was prepared to address shortcomings identified in the course of operating the Guidelines and to enhance the effectiveness of sanctions against false submission of, or refusal to submit, data for the designation of public disclosure-obligated corporate groups, etc. ("designation data"). The main contents of the proposed amendment are as follows.
First, the criteria for filing complaints against material false submission of designation data, etc. will be strengthened.
Under the current Guidelines, whether to file a complaint is determined by considering the perpetrator's awareness of the violation (whether the perpetrator knew or could have known of the violation) and the severity of the violation. However, because complaints have in principle only been filed where awareness was either clearly evident or considerable while the severity of the violation was also clearly evident, there has been a problem in which cases with clearly evident or considerable severity could be excluded from complaint filing if awareness was not clearly established. Accordingly, cases where severity is clearly evident, or where severity is considerable and awareness is also considerable, will now in principle be included as subject to complaint filing, in order to strengthen accountability and sanctions for serious violations.
However, even where severity is clearly evident, if awareness is minimal, complaints may not be filed where objective evidence confirms that the perpetrator was unaware of the possibility of a violation.
Second, criteria for filing complaints against repeated false submission of designation data, etc. will be introduced.
The current Guidelines do not separately establish complaint criteria for repeat offenders, using repetition only as a factor in inferring awareness of the violation. To strengthen the effectiveness of sanctions against repeat violations, complaints will in principle be filed where the same type of violation is repeated within the past three years.
Third, the criteria for determining awareness and severity regarding omission of affiliated companies held by the controlling person or close relatives, etc. will be specified and clarified.
Reflecting recent KFTC decisions, cases where a company in which the controlling person directly holds a substantial equity stake is omitted or falsely recorded in the designation data will be specified as an example of clearly evident awareness, while cases involving a company in which a close relative holds a substantial equity stake will be specified as an example of considerable awareness. In addition, prior experience in submitting designation data may now be considered in determining awareness.
The criteria for determining severity have also been refined to reflect recent KFTC decisions. Cases where the scale of the omission of affiliated companies is large and the omission period is long will be added as an example of clearly evident severity, even if the omission does not affect whether the group is designated as a public disclosure-obligated corporate group, etc., while cases where the scale of the omission is small and the omission period is short will be added as an example of minimal severity.
As designation data forms the basis of policy toward large business groups, the KFTC expects that this amendment—by strengthening accountability and sanctions for false submissions, etc.-will help promptly curb the improper expansion of control and pursuit of private interests by controlling families.
The KFTC plans to thoroughly review comments submitted by stakeholders, relevant government agencies, and others during the administrative notice period before finalizing and implementing the amendment.