“Cargo Truckers Solidarity acquitted in unprecedented antitrust case filed by Fair Trade Commission”, 15 June 2025

Cargo Truckers Solidarity (CTS) has been acquitted in a rare criminal case filed by South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission (FTC), which accused the group of violating antitrust law by staging a nationwide strike in November 2022. The truckers had demanded the abolition of the sunset clause on the Safe Rates System, which guarantees minimum freight charges to prevent overwork and ensure road safety.

The Yoon administration responded to the strike with unprecedented measures, including invoking a return-to-work order—never before used in such a context—and labelling CTS not as a trade union, but as a business association, thereby enabling the FTC to pursue criminal charges under competition law. This marked the first time the Commission had prosecuted a labour organisation.

After nearly two years of legal proceedings, the Seoul Central District Court delivered a not guilty verdict in August 2023. Prosecutors have appealed the ruling.

Judge Park Chan-beom, who presided over the case, described the Safe Rates System as a “means of ensuring minimum subsistence” and characterised the strike not as an attempt to manipulate freight rates but as a collective action aimed at securing safe and fair working conditions. He ruled that the strike constituted legitimate union activity tied to labour conditions.

Labour advocates denounced the prosecution as part of a broader campaign of union repression targeting precarious workers. One organiser stated, “Charging us under antitrust law exploited the ambiguous status of special employment types and was a new tactic to suppress union rights.”