South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Monday that it has fined three major retailers a combined 580 million won ($527,220) for abusing their market power in deals with smaller suppliers.

Hyundai Department Store and E-Mart were ordered to pay 290 million won each in penalties, according to the Fair Trade Commission.

The two retail giants are accused of demanding suppliers provide their management information including margin rates and sales numbers.

The FTC also said it learned that Lotte Mart passed on the costs of about 1.6 billion won worth of promotional events, such as taste testings, to smaller suppliers.

A plenary meeting will “soon” be convened to determine the level of punishment for the malpractice, the watchdog said.

This would mark the first case where a bigger company is punished for transferring promotional costs to smaller companies.

The FTC expects that the decision would help make transparent the deals between retailers and suppliers for promotional events and eventually reduce costs that the latter would have to shoulder.

(Yonhap)