South Korea fines Mercedes $7.6 million over misleading EV battery information

SEOUL, March 10 (Reuters) - South Korea's antitrust regulator said on Tuesday it has fined Mercedes-Benz MBGn.DE 11.2 billion won ($7.61 million) for misrepresenting the battery suppliers in its electric vehicles.

The Korea Fair Trade Commission said Mercedes-Benz promoted its EQE and EQS models as using premium cells from CATL 300750.SZ, the world’s largest EV battery maker, while concealing that some vehicles instead carried Farasis Energy 688567.SS batteries - information absent from dealer guides and marketing material.

CATL held a 39% share of the global EV battery market in 2025, while Farasis Energy did not rank among the world's top 10 battery suppliers, according to industry tracker SNE Research.

"We respect the decision made at the plenary session at KFTC; however, we firmly disagree with the Commission's final decision," Mercedes-Benz Korea said in a statement.

The company added that it would "take necessary legal measures, including an administrative lawsuit," and said it had "accurately conveyed true and correct information to both the media and our customers."

INVESTIGATION TRIGGERED BY EV FIRE

The FTC said it launched an investigation after it found battery cells in a Mercedes EV involved in an August 2024 fire at an underground parking lot in Incheon were made by Farasis.

About 3,000 vehicles containing Farasis battery cells were sold between June 2023 and August 2024, with total sales amounting to roughly 281 billion won, the FTC said.

The regulator's 11.2 billion won fine, equivalent to about 4% of the related sales, was the maximum penalty allowed under the law for such unfair practices, it said.

An FTC official said Mercedes' German headquarters and its Korean unit would jointly pay the fine.

The regulator said it would also refer both Mercedes headquarters in Germany and the Korean unit to prosecutors, saying the two were involved directly or indirectly in creating and distributing the sales guidelines.

($1 = 1,471.6000 won)