The Fair Trade Commission announced on the 8th that it has decided to impose a penalty surcharge of 390 million won on Doowon Clutch for violating the Subcontracting Transaction Act by transferring technical data of suppliers to China and India.

According to the Fair Trade Commission, Doowon Clutch received mold drawings from suppliers for the purpose of obtaining approval before commissioning the production of molds needed for vehicle heating and cooling device manufacturing.

Later, Doowon Clutch provided the mold drawings received from suppliers to its subsidiaries overseas, giving 3 cases to its corporation in China and 2 cases to its corporation in India without explicitly agreeing in writing with the suppliers about the provision of the mold drawings.

Doowon Clutch also misappropriated technical data by sending one mold drawing of a supplier that was embroiled in a payment settlement conflict to a competing supplier without the supplier's consent, having the mold modified.

The Fair Trade Commission decided to issue corrective orders and impose a penalty surcharge for the acts of Doowon Clutch in requiring and receiving mold drawings from suppliers without providing written requests detailing the purposes and not concluding non-disclosure agreements.

An official from the Fair Trade Commission noted, "This action is an example of the extensive ex officio investigation into the mold industry to detect and penalize acts of technical misappropriation," and added, "We will strengthen monitoring of procedural violations related to technical misappropriation and requests for technical data to establish order in subcontracting transactions."