[Photo: Newsis]
South Korea's Fair Trade Commission has hit Mercedes-Benz with a 20.2 billion won fine over falsified information on gas emissions for its diesel cars.
The antitrust regulator announced on Sunday that it ordered the German automaker and its Korean unit to take corrective actions.
Mercedes-Benz was found to have tampered with pollution mitigation devices by installing illegal software in its cars, which made them perform at lower levels in ordinary driving conditions than during certification tests.
The rigging means the vehicles failed to meet permissible emission levels, but the automaker falsified related facts in signs attached to its cars between April 2012 and November 2018, according to the commission.
"Such practices will or are feared to hurt fair market order by preventing consumers from making a reasonable decision," the regulator said in a press release.
Last year the commission fined or ordered corrective steps for Audi-Volkswagen Korea, Nissan Motor, Stellantis Korea and Porsche AG for similar emissions rigging incidents.
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