Prime Minister Han Seong-sook pledged Wednesday to root out price-fixing practices, saying the government has imposed more than 1.8 trillion won ($1.3 billion) in administrative fines this year alone on companies involved in collusion.
Han made the remark in a post on X, saying stabilizing prices is an important responsibility of the government.
"We will firmly safeguard the people's dining tables from price-fixing," she said.
Noting the amount of administrative fines imposed this year for price-fixing of sugar, eggs, flour and starch sugars, Han said the penalties led to price drops of up to 26.5 percent for those items.
"This means that companies had been placing a heavy burden on the people's dining tables," she said, promising to root out such collusion.
"We will strengthen economic sanctions to ensure that no further profit can be gained through collusion." (Yonhap)
