Siemens Korea has been slapped with a fine from the country’s Fair Trade Commission for allegedly colluding with Canon to score a CT scanner contract.
The antitrust agency said the violation occurred back in 2015, when Siemens asked Canon Korea to remain in the bidding process to supply imaging machines for a local hospital. It made the request at the time, despite believing that it had a “high chance” of winning out, the Korea Times reported Sunday.
Canon honored the request and remained in the competition, with support from Siemens, and later submitted a higher price estimate. Siemens eventually won the bidding process at about $1.2 million (USD).
The South Korea FTC deemed the alleged collusion a violation of the country’s monopoly regulation and fair trade acts. As a result, Siemens and Canon—which was Toshiba Medical Systems Korea at the time of the violation—have been ordered to pay fines of $26,000 and $17,000, respectively. “The FTC will spare no efforts to enhance monitoring on the healthcare and medical industries and will impose strict punishments to violators,” an FTC official told the outlet.
Read more in the Korea Times.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.