Cricket Prosecution Accused and Penalty 900 Million by Crickets Handed Over to Subcontractor Technology China to Lower Delivery Unit Prices

Crickets Holdings and Crickets, which handed over technical data from suppliers to competitors such as China to lower the unit price of parts delivery, will be investigated by prosecutors along with the Fair Trade Commission sanctions.

The Fair Trade Commission ordered Crickets Holdings and Crickets to correct and impose a fine of 954 million won along with a prosecution complaint, saying they had requested Chinese and Korean suppliers to develop the same product.

The FTC said Crickets Holdings has been receiving supplies since 2021 after handing over 32 supplier technical data that had been delivering boiler sensors from July 2020 to March 2021 to a Chinese rival to succeed in developing the product.

In the case of crickets, the FTC explained that in May 2022, two technical materials for air conditioner parts submitted by suppliers were handed over to another domestic company to successfully develop electric motors.

The two companies also requested 46 technical materials from these suppliers and did not issue a technical data request document with the purpose of the request.

In order to reduce unit prices, the FTC expected that it would contribute to preventing similar violations of the law, saying that it detected and sanctioned technology misuses that unfairly provided technical data from suppliers to third parties and non-issuance of documents when requested.