South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC), the country's antitrust regulator, has fined two auto parts suppliers a combined 2.59 billion won (US$1.75 million) for colluding to fix bids on contracts with Hyundai Motor and Kia. SM Hwajin Co. and Cubic Korea Inc. secretly prearranged winners and prices across five tenders held between September 2020 and April 2023 for interior surface treatment work — specifically a technique called hydrographic printing — on models including the Sportage, EV9, Santa Fe, EV3, and Palisade. The FTC noted that the collusion may have affected production costs or retail prices of the vehicles involved, though it has not yet determined whether consumers directly paid more as a result.