The Fair Trade Commission said Tuesday that it has fined LG Electronics 85 million won ($74,000) for hindering an antitrust investigation into the company’s alleged discrimination toward non-LG dealerships in provincial areas.

In March, the state-run antitrust watchdog launched an on-site investigation into LG on suspicions of offering products to its affiliate dealership Hiplaza at “unfairly” cheaper prices compared to other retail buyers.

Amid a tussle between investigators and company officials at the entrance of the marketing office, some employees were found to have taken away related computer data and deleted the content.

The FTC imposed a fine worth 50 million won on LG and fined two marketing team leaders with 15 million won each and a manager-level employee with 5 million won.

“Companies are responding to antitrust investigations under a systemic manual. Employees who hinder investigations sometimes get promoted rather than punished within companies,” said an FTC official.

Since a revision to the Fair Trade Law took effect in May, punitive measures have been toughened to impose up to three years in prison or up to 200 million won in fines on a company or an individual involved in physical conflicts with FTC officials.

However, other activities like hiding or deleting documents still result in penalty fees, making it difficult to root out pervasive practices among local conglomerates.

In March, Samsung Electronics was given the highest-ever fine of 400 million won for antitrust obstruction. More recently, SK C&C, an IT service unit of SK Group, was slapped with a 290 million won fine.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jyee@heraldcorp.com)