South Korea’s antitrust watchdog said Wednesday that it has decided to reject a commitment agreement request by major movie chains suspected of abusing their market power.

A commitment decision refers to a process in which the Fair Trade Commission finalize a case swiftly without making any determinations on illegality if companies under investigation voluntarily come up with reasonable corrective measures.

CJ CGV Co., CJ E&M Corp. and Lotte Shopping are accused of abusing their market power in expanding the number of screens and time available for movies distributed by their affiliates. Last month, they asked the FTC to launch the commitment decision process.

“We have determined that it is inappropriate to provide a commitment decision after taking into consideration the nature of the case, timing and protection of consumers,” the FTC said in a press release.

An FTC official explained that the decision was made since the companies have not shown sufficient self-correction efforts and they have also been suspected of trying to buy time through the request.

It is the first time that the FTC has rejected a commitment decision request since it executed the process late last year for Internet portal operators, including Naver. (Yonhap)