DRIVEN BASE

The Korea Fair Trade Commission's Announcement Concerning the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act related to Certain Automotive Components

Mar. 26, 2015

Kariya (Japan)—The Korea Fair Trade Commission (the “KFTC”) announced today that it decided to order to rectify illegal conduct and impose a surcharge to certain automotive suppliers pursuant to Articles 19, 21 and 22 of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, in connection with certain past sales of automotive ignition coils and exhaust gas temperature sensors.

The KFTC has investigated this matter at certain automotive suppliers, including DENSO Corporation and its subsidiary in Republic of Korea, and the DENSO companies have fully cooperated with the KFTC.

As per the KFTC’s announcement, DENSO Corporation and its subsidiary, DENSO Korea Automotive Corporation, were named as the suppliers involved in violation of the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act (No. 8 of Section 1 in Article 19). However, the DENSO companies were exempted from all of the KFTC’s orders as described above, because they had completely eliminated the conduct that was suspected to be in violation before the commencement of the authority’s investigation and because they applied to the KFTC for the leniency program in regard to suspected illegal conduct related to sales of automotive ignition coils and exhaust gas temperature sensors, which was granted by the KFTC.

It is DENSO’s policy to comply with all applicable antimonopoly laws. Since learning of the investigation that was conducted at its U.S. subsidiary by the U.S. Department of Justice in February 2010, DENSO group companies have been taking various preventive measures, including implementing more stringent compliance rules, more enhanced compliance training and more meticulous compliance monitoring, in order to further ensure that they comply with all applicable antimonopoly laws.

DENSO is committed to compliance with all applicable antimonopoly laws around the world.