“32 cases of partner sensor technology leaked”
Fair Trade Commission fined KRW 950 million… accusation
Chinese company develops sensors and delivers them
Kiturami, a boiler manufacturer, was fined close to 1 billion won for leaking its partner company’s technology to domestic and foreign companies. It was revealed that the technology was even transferred to a Chinese company in order to receive boiler parts at a lower price.
On the 18th, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it had imposed a fine of 954 million won on Kiturami for violating the Subcontracting Act and reported it to the prosecution. Kiturami Holdings, the holding company of Kiturami Group, was also reported to the prosecution. They are suspected of passing on technical data on parts from two partner companies to another company.
According to the Fair Trade Commission, Kiturami was found to have handed over 32 pieces of technical data from a partner company that supplied sensors to a Chinese competitor over a nine-month period from July 2020 to March of the following year. In order to receive components that detect heating water and exhaust gas temperatures at a lower price, the existing supplier’s technology was leaked to competitors.
The Fair Trade Commission explains that the leaked data included not only the structure and characteristics of the sensor parts, but also specifications, product drawings, and types of detailed parts. The Chinese company that received the data succeeded in developing three types of sensors, and one type of sensor was actually delivered to Kiturami starting in 2021. It was found that Kiturami provided two cases of technical data from its partner companies to other domestic competitors in May 2022 in order to lower the unit price of electric motors used in air conditioner fans. This competitor company succeeded in developing an electric motor using the data, but it did not lead to actual production. According to an internal document obtained by the Fair Trade Commission, it was revealed that Kiturami leaked technical data, saying it was dualizing its product suppliers to reduce costs or respond to price increases.
The Fair Trade Commission also discovered that Kiturami requested 46 pieces of technical data from two partner companies from 2012 to 2022 and failed to issue a ‘technical data request letter’ that stated the purpose. Kim Hong-geun, head of the Technology Misuse Investigation Division of the Fair Trade Commission, said, “It was judged to be a very serious violation related to technology misappropriation, so we imposed a fine close to 1 billion won, which is the upper limit of fixed fines at the time of violation.” He added, “Technology that will continue to fundamentally undermine the market competitiveness of suppliers.” “We plan to intensively monitor misappropriation activities,” he said.
Sejong = Reporter Kim Do-hyung [email protected]
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