Another Record-Breaking Year: Major Conglomerates Collect 2.2 Trillion Won in Annual Trademark Royalties

Legitimate Brand Value vs. Controversy Over Unfair Support
Comprehensive Monitoring and Investigation by the Fair Trade Commission
Standards for "Fair Price" at the Center of Debate

It has been found that the amount of trademark royalties (brand signage fees) collected by major conglomerates from their affiliates has reached an all-time high.

According to data submitted by Yang Soo Lee, a member of the National Assembly's Political Affairs Committee from the People Power Party, to the Fair Trade Commission on August 18, 80 groups out of the 102 publicly-disclosed business conglomerates with assets of 5 trillion won or more collected a total of 2.2239 trillion won in signage fees from 1,016 affiliates last year. This figure surpassed the previous all-time high of 2.153 trillion won recorded the year before, setting a new record after just one year.

By company, SK ranked first with 349.9 billion won, overtaking LG (348.9 billion won), followed by Hanwha (199.1 billion won), CJ (133.1 billion won), POSCO (128.2 billion won), and Lotte (124.3 billion won).

Assemblyman Yang Soo Lee stated, "Although affiliates play a major role in increasing brand value through marketing and advertising, holding the trademark rights solely with the holding company and charging affiliates for it could constitute unfair double spending by the affiliates," and emphasized, "The Fair Trade Commission should thoroughly analyze the repeated collection of signage fees and take firm action."

The Fair Trade Commission believes that the enormous scale of trademark transactions is likely being used as a convenient means to channel affiliate profits to holding or representative companies with high ownership held by controlling families, and is sharply increasing its monitoring. In June and July, on-site investigations were conducted into Hanwha Group and CJ Group, both of which are among the top groups in signage fee collections. It is also known that the Commission is in the process of establishing standardized pricing criteria and a review system for trademark transactions, which had previously been difficult to regulate due to the lack of appropriate standards.

Meanwhile, some in the business community have voiced concerns that, given the unique nature of signage fees, it is difficult to objectively quantify market prices in advance, so companies' managerial autonomy and industry-specific trading realities should be adequately reflected in the implementation process.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.