By Yoon Ja-young
Staff Reporter

For those who wondered why the prices of beverages rose last year regardless of the brand, there was ample reason to be suspicious. As it turns out, beverage makers colluded with each other to raise prices last year. Lotte Chilsung, the biggest beverage maker in the country, was fined 21.7 billion won and the prosecution indicted its CEO.

The Free Trade Commission (FTC) said Sunday that five beverage companies ― Lotte Chilsung, Haitai Beverage, Woongjin Food, Coca Cola Korea and Donga Otsuka ― colluded to hike prices four times between February 2008 to February this year.

Lotte Chilsung, which represents 36.7 percent of the market, led the effort. It raised its prices first, with the other four companies following suit around a month later.

They increased prices of fruit beverages by 10 percent and other beverages by 5 percent in February and March last year, respectively. They upped the prices by 10 percent again in February this year.

Besides the penalty on Lotte Chilsung, the commission levied a 2.4 billion won fine on Haitai and 1.5 billion won fine on Woongjin. Donga Otsuka and Coca Cola, meanwhile, were exempted from fines, as they were the first two companies to report to the commission about the violation. They confessed to the commission four days after the investigation started.

The agency also referred to the prosecution the CEOs of Lotte and Haitai. The two CEOs made phone calls last September regarding price collusion. In one case, the two companies agreed to raise the price of 1.5-liter bottles of juice by 10 percent around the end of last year. The collusion took place ahead of New Year's Day, when juice products are popular gift items.

The commission expected the punitive action to make the market more transparent, encouraging competition and leading to the stabilization of prices.

chizpizza@koreatimes.co.kr