A court has ruled that failing to pay a reward to a whistleblower who reported collusion in their industry is unlawful. The ruling emphasized that since the whistleblower’s report led to an investigation and subsequent convictions, there was sufficient grounds to grant compensation.
According to legal circles on the 7th, the Seoul Administrative Court’s Administrative Division 7 (Presiding Judge Lee Ju-young) ruled in favor of the plaintiff, whistleblower A, in a lawsuit filed against the Anti-corruption & Civil Rights Commission to overturn the decision not to pay the reward. The ruling was made in late November of last year.
The case originated from A’s 2016 report to prosecutors about bid-rigging and misconduct by the Korea Centrifugal Concrete Industry Cooperative, a consortium of construction material producers. A testified in detail as a witness at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in April and June of that year, leading to the indictment of 27 individuals on charges including bid obstruction. Their convictions were finalized, and the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) imposed a penalty of 48.525 billion Korean won in 2020.
Based on this, A applied to the commission for a reward under the Public Interest Whistleblower Protection Act, arguing that their report to investigative authorities about the cooperative’s bid-rigging had restored public funds through the KFTC’s penalty. However, the commission rejected the application in June 2024, stating, “...
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