Daily Union (Monthly, Korea News Newspaper) Ryu seungwoo Journalist |  CJ Freshway [051500, CEO Lee Kun-il] was fined 24.5 billion won by the Fair Trade Commission for infiltrating alley areas under the guise of co-prosperity with small and medium-sized business owners.

This is a strict sanction on attempts by large companies to systematically exclude small and medium-sized business owners and dominate the market in the domestic food distribution market, and it is for unfair support activities related to the largest manpower support ever.

CJ Freshway is Korea's No. 1 food material distribution operator to large food service companies and was fined 24.5 billion won by the FTC for committing massive unfair support activities when entering the local food material distribution market led by small and medium-sized business owners.

This comes after CJ Freshway and its affiliate FreshOne paid a total of 33.4 billion won worth of labor costs for 12 years and eight months instead.

CJ Freshway established FreshOne to promote co-prosperity externally to appease opposition from small and medium-sized business owners, but in reality, it turned out that it intended to exclude them from the market and strengthen its control.

CJ Freshway established a joint venture and dominated the market by controlling its stake when it entered the local food and materials market led by small and medium-sized business owners around 2010.

CJ Freshway [051500, CEO Lee Kun-il] dispatched its personnel to Freshman to take on the role of key managers such as the head of the corporation, and paid labor costs instead in the process.

Through this, FreshOne secured a professional workforce with abundant experience and gained a strong position in the market that was occupied by small and medium-sized business owners.

This unfair support played a role in delaying Freshman's exit from the market.

Lee Kun-il, the new CEO of CJ Freshway, has a critical responsibility to actively implement ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) management for the sustainable growth of the company.

The FTC's imposition of fines is an example of a company's failure to fulfill its social responsibilities while advocating for co-prosperity, clearly suggesting the right direction for CJ Freshway.

The FTC said the move is meaningful in detecting and sanctioning an unprecedented amount of manpower support activities in which large companies enter a market where many small business owners exist, exclude them and steal profits.

In the future, the FTC will continue to monitor large corporations' unfair support activities in markets where many small and medium-sized business owners exist, and strictly sanction them if violations of the law are confirmed.

CEO Lee Kun-il should lead CJ Freshway to present a true win-win model through fulfilling its social responsibilities and transparent and law-abiding management.

To this end, ESG management philosophy should be converted into a concrete action plan rather than a simple slogan and applied thoroughly in all business areas.

This will be a way to ensure CJ Freshway's long-term growth and sustainable development.

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