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The conflict between Korea Smart Card Co. (KSCC), official operator of Seoul's transit cards, and some credit card companies over their commission, remain unsettled during the ongoing process of contract renewal talks. If the negotiations fail to yield an agreement, the issuance of new credit cards with the transport card chip that enables deferred payment will be halted. This will also cause great inconvenience to the some 5 million existing cardholders, as they will not be able to use their cards for public transportation after the one to three month postponement period comes to an end.
According to a statement issued by the credit card industry on Thursday, by the current contract which expires this month, KSCC demands a maximum commission of W3,600 for each card from the credit card companies. The credit card companies are refusing to accept the offer. They see KSCC's demand as unilateral price fixing resulting from KSCC's improper use of its monopoly. The credit card companies expressed their plans to bring the case before the Fair Trade Commission. The Seoul Metropolitan Government is the chief stockholder of KSCC, with about 35 percent of the shares.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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