South Korea’s antitrust watchdog hit the country’s two largest carriers with fines totaling 2.7 billion Won (€1.7 million) for price fixing yesterday.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) charged SK Telecom 1.96 billion won and rival Korea Telecom 811 million won, for rigging prices of DRM-protected digital music and online content in the country, after finding the pair colluded with Loen Entertainment and Mnet Media.
Most of the blame appears to have been laid at the door of the two media firms, though, which were fined 9.58 billion won and 1.98 billion won respectively, the Korea Herald states.
All four firms were seeking to protect profits from online music and download services, which were under threat from a cheaper service by Soribada covering non-DRM protected content.
The FTC’s investigation also puts major global content firms Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music and Warner Music in the spotlight, with the Commission finding the trio has also colluded on the price charged for DRM content.