South Korea fines mobile carriers $25 mln for exaggerating 5G speeds (updated)

SK Telecom

17/08/2023 10:28

(Adds breakup of fine for companies in paragraph 6, background)
    By Heekyong Yang
       SEOUL, Aug 17 (Reuters) - South Korea's antitrust
regulator said it had imposed a total of 33.6 billion won
($25.06 million) in fines on three domestic mobile carriers for
exaggerating their 5G network speeds. 
    The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) said the three South
Korean firms - SK Telecom Co Ltd  017670.KS , KT Corp
 030200.KS  and LG Uplus Corp  032640.KS  - had also unfairly
advertised that they were the fastest relative to their
competitors.
    "The three teleco companies advertised that consumers could
use target 5G network speeds, which cannot be achieved in
real-life environment ... companies advertised that their 5G
network speed was faster than competitors without evidence," the
KFTC said in a statement. 
    In support of ongoing civil lawsuits filed by consumers, the
advertisements released by the three mobile carriers have been
presented by the regulator to a local court. 
    SK Telecom and KT Corp declined to comment. A spokesperson
at LG Uplus said the company is reviewing the sanctions. 
    The KFTC imposed a fine of 16.8 billion won on SK Telecom,
13.9 billion won on KT and 2.8 billion won on LG Uplus.
    There were 30.76 million 5G network users in South Korea in
June, accounting for about 38% of the total 80.23 million mobile
subscriptions in the country, according to data from the
Ministry of Science and ICT.
        

($1 = 1,340.9700 won)

 (Reporting by Heekyong Yang; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Devika
Syamnath)
 ((Heekyong.Yang@thomsonreuters.com;))