The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) imposed a total surcharge of 54,519 million won (about USD 48 million) on 4 cathode ray tube (CRT) Glass manufacturers for colluding to fix prices.

The KFTC found that 4 CRT Glass manufacturers - Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd., Hankuk Electric Glass Co., Ltd., Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd., Nippon Electric Glass(Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd - agreed to fix prices and reduce output of CRT Glass, and implemented the agreement for almost 8 years from March 1999 to January 2007.

The KFTC found that the cartel conspiracies for CRT Glass seriously affected the Korean market.

The surcharges imposed for CRT Glass cartel are the following:

Samsung Corning Precision Materials Co., Ltd. - 32,452 million won
Hankuk Electric Glass Co., Ltd. - 18,318 million won
Nippon Electric Glass Co., Ltd. - 3,712 million won
Nippon Electric Glass (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. - 37 million won

According to KFTC, The CRT Glass producers agreed on fixing prices and reducing output of CRT Glass in the secret meetings which took place in various countries including Korea, Japan, and Singapore at least thirty five times for almost 8 years from March 1999 to January 2007.

In addition, they agreed on fixing prices of CRT Glass by setting the amount of price cut (or increase), allocating market shares by major customers such as Samsung SDI and curtailing production by shutting down CRT Glass production lines. And the CRT Glass manufacturers exchanged confidential business information such as CRT Glass sales, production, market shares to fulfill and monitor the implementation of their agreements.

KFTC's decision is the result of a joint investigation with foreign competition authorities including the European Commission in March 2009.