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(CCTV Finance "Tianxia Finance") South Korea's newly built apartments will generally be installed in advance closets, wardrobes and other types of furniture, construction companies ultimately choose which supplier, needs to be decided through bidding. Yesterday, dozens of furniture companies in South Korea were exposed to long-term black-box manipulation and bidding price gouging, and were issued huge fines by regulators.
Zhu Hongyu, special reporter of the Financial Channel: According to the disclosure of the South Korean market regulator - the Fair Trade Commission, a total of 31 furniture manufacturing and sales companies, including a number of large and well-known furniture companies, were issued corrective measures and fined 93.1 billion won (about 490 million yuan) in the bidding of 738 pieces of furniture by 24 construction companies on suspicion of black-box manipulation, bidding price gouging and monopolistic behavior.
When purchasing furniture, Korean construction companies usually bid for registered partners, and usually sign a contract with the company that offers the lowest price. In order to avoid losses in low-price competition, in the ten years from 2012 to 2022, these furniture companies selected the winning bidders in advance by rolling dice or drawing lots before participating in the bidding, and then the winning bidders will send quotations to the accompanying furniture companies, and the accompanying enterprises will bid at a higher price. In an environment where fair bidding is required, furniture companies monopolize and obtain profits by determining the winning bidder in advance or sharing the bid price.
According to statistics from the Korea Fair Trade Commission, the improper sales of the furniture companies involved in the past ten years have been nearly 2 trillion won (about 10.7 billion yuan). As the cost of furniture is included in the cost of construction, it also has an impact on the higher sales price of apartments. Based on a house with a usable area of 84 square meters, each family may have an additional burden of about RMB 1,330 when buying a house.
Paid the money that did not have to be paid, which caused consumer dissatisfaction, and the relevant furniture companies must seriously reflect on the black box operation. In addition, the Korea Fair Trade Commission is investigating whether furniture companies have engaged in unfair practices in tenders initiated by 70 small construction companies.
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Intern Editor: Carrie To