Gov't to launch sweeping probe into price-fixing in housing, insurance, education from September

The government will launch a concentrated investigation into unfair trade practices, including price-fixing, in sectors closely tied to daily life — housing, daily necessities and services, education, and energy — starting in September. It is also pushing to introduce forced business divestitures, license revocations and business suspensions for companies that repeatedly engage in collusion.

The government announced the plan, titled "Pan-Government Joint Response Team Action Plan on Consumer Harm," at a combined emergency economic headquarters meeting, economic ministers' meeting and special consumer price management ministerial TF held Friday at Government Complex Seoul.

The initiative expands the existing pan-government joint response framework — previously focused on three areas directly linked to public safety: voice phishing, transnational crime and drugs — to cover consumer welfare issues, with the aim of enhancing public safety, easing public anxiety and establishing a fair market order.

The scope of the response covers unfair trade practices such as collusion and abuse of monopolistic or oligopolistic positions, as well as rental housing fraud, insurance fraud, ticket scalping and price gouging, illegal private lending and debt collection, improper gains through tariff quota manipulation, and various forms of consumer deception. The government said it will respond at the pan-government level to any conduct that undermines consumer welfare, including exploitation of regulatory loopholes and entrenched bad practices.

Particular focus will be placed on unfair trade practices that harm consumers, with administrative resources concentrated on high-impact sectors while regulatory reforms are pursued in parallel. The Korea Fair Trade Commission will conduct sequential investigations and impose sanctions starting in September, targeting sectors closely tied to daily life, including food, daily necessities and services, education, and energy. The Fair Trade Commission detected collusion worth 20 trillion won ($14.4 billion) in the food sector — including sugar and flour — in the first half of this year.

Inter-agency coordination will also be strengthened. Once evidence of a legal violation is found at the early stages of a Fair Trade Commission collusion investigation, authorities will immediately activate a cooperative framework with investigative agencies, the National Tax Service and Korea Customs Service.

Regulatory reforms to improve detection rates and toughen sanctions on unfair trade will proceed alongside the investigations. Following the removal of the cap on reward payments for reporting unfair trade practices, the government will pursue an amendment to the Fair Trade Act to extend the statute of limitations on collusion penalties. It also plans to revise the Fair Trade Act and related laws to allow the introduction of forced business divestitures, license revocations and business suspensions for repeat offenders.

A pan-government response structure will also be established. A vice minister-level joint ministerial response team will be formed, bringing together the Ministry of Economy and Finance, the Fair Trade Commission, the Korean National Police Agency and related ministries and agencies — including the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries; the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy; the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport; the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; the Ministry of Science and ICT; the Financial Services Commission; the Financial Supervisory Service; the National Tax Service; and Korea Customs Service.

The government plans to periodically report and announce the results of cross-ministry joint efforts — including the detection of collusion and criminal activity and regulatory improvements addressing unfair practices — to the special consumer price management ministerial TF.