OTOKI won a lawsuit in the first trial filed to continue receiving noodles from Myeonsarang, operated by the late honorary chairman Ham Tae-ho's son-in-law.
On the 12th, the Seoul Administrative Court's Administrative 12th Division (Director General Kang Jae-won) said in a lawsuit filed by OTOKI and Myeonsarang against the Minister of the Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Startups that it would cancel all of the Ministry's dispositions.
OTOKI has been receiving noodles from the small business Myeonsarang for over 30 years. Jeong Se-jang, the representative who founded Myeonsarang, is the son-in-law of the late honorary chairman Ham Tae-ho and the brother-in-law of OTOKI Chairman Ham Young-jun. It is reported that Representative Jeong established the predecessor of Myeonsarang, Janghak Foods, accepting the late chairman's proposal.
The problem arose when the average sales of Myeonsarang, which was a small business, exceeded 100 billion won as of 2020, turning it into a medium-sized enterprise. The noodle and naengmyeon manufacturing industry was designated as a livelihood-appropriate industry in 2020, preventing large enterprises from entering the market for these products except for convenience foods, thus allowing only transactions with small and medium-sized enterprises.
The Ministry of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises and Startups ordered OTOKI to completely suspend the OEM (original equipment manufacturing) transaction with Myeonsarang and to find an alternative partner. In response, OTOKI and Myeonsarang filed an administrative lawsuit seeking to cancel this disposition.
On that day, the court canceled the Ministry's order to suspend the transaction, siding with OTOKI and Myeonsarang. The court stated, 'The scale of transactions between OTOKI and Myeonsarang cannot be considered an expansion of a large business prohibited in the livelihood-appropriate industry, making the disposition unlawful.'