South Korea scraps antitrust whistleblower reward caps to lure insiders
By Jenny Lee ( May 21, 2026, 04:42 GMT | Insight) -- An insider who tips off South Korea's antitrust regulator to a major cartel or other unfair-trade violation could soon walk away with tens of billions of won in reward money, under sweeping changes to the country's whistleblower payout rules that the Korea Fair Trade Commission proposed on Thursday. The regulator opened a 20-day public comment period on a draft amendment that would eliminate all caps on whistleblower rewards and replace a complex tiered calculation with a flat rate of up to 10 percent of whatever surcharge is ultimately levied against the offending companies. The KFTC plans to finalize the rules in the first half of this year.An insider who tips off South Korea's antitrust regulator to a major cartel or other unfair-trade violation could soon walk away with tens of billions of won in reward money, under sweeping changes to the country's whistleblower payout rules that the Korea Fair Trade Commission, or KFTC, proposed on Thursday....
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