South Korean regulator KCC is following through with threats to impose its own business suspension on SK Telecom and LG U+ over their practice of offering “illegal” smartphone subsidies.
The regulator resolved in March to ban SK Telecom from signing up new mobile customers for seven days, and LG U+ for 14 days. But the suspensions were deferred because all three operators had already been hit with staggered 45-day suspensions imposed by the nation's ICT ministry.
Now that the last of these sales suspensions has concluded, the KCC plans to impose its own sanctions, the JoongAng Dailyreported.
The KCC has been meeting this week to discuss how to impose the penalties, which are expected to take effect around mid-to-late June. According to the report, industry watchers expect the suspensions to be served sequentially and not simultaneously.
KT will be spared an additional suspension, according to the report.
Smartphone manufacturers and retailers have complained that they have been hardest hit by the business suspensions, while LG U+ has complained that imposing the longest suspension on the smallest operator by market share represents “reverse discrimination.”
South Korean regulators and operators have been battling for years over the practice of offering handset subsidies that exceed the 270,000 won ($265) legal limit.