The number covered violations for which the FTC issued administrative warnings or stricter penalties. It marked the first time in 27 years that the number of detected unfair trade practices dropped below the 100 mark.

The fall was attributed largely to a decline in violations by newspaper publishers amid tumbling demand for newspapers.

"The decline in reports of newspaper companies' violations affected the overall drop," an FTC official said. "Excluding newspaper firms, the number of sanctioned unfair transaction practices seems to have increased."

Meanwhile, the number of FTC's overall sanctions shrank 14 percent from a year earlier to 2,279 in 2016, marking the first on-year decrease in three years. (Yonhap)