In addition, for the plaintiff to unilaterally discount unit price against subcontractors, there
needs to be objective and justifiable reasons, such as price cut in raw materials arising from
dramatic increase in transaction volume, or decrease in labor costs or cost reduction.
Transaction volume of chargers only increased by 28.3% in 2003 compared to 2002. In
particular, in the first-half of 2003, compared to the first half of 2002, the overall volume was
down by 0.8% and transaction amount, by 10.5%. The individual transaction volume and
amount of 4 subcontractors had dramatically decreased. ‘The second review of corporate
guidelines of vendor management’ prepared by the plaintiff on August 13, 2004, also
acknowledged that ‘a forced unit discount itself may be a violation of the Fair Trade Act’. In
addition, if subcontractors did not concede to uniform unit price discounts, according to
plaintiff’s guideline for vendor evaluation, their evaluation results often turned negative,
consequently leading to less transaction volume or even suspension of dealing. As
subcontractors were in such an inferior position, they had no choice but to follow the plaintiff’s decision. Given these facts, the plaintiff unilaterally discounted the price without
considering any features or differences of subcontractors, such as their business and market
conditions, types of products, transaction volume, size, quality, usage and raw materials.
Therefore, the plaintiff is not regarded to have any justifiable reason for such price discount.”