The understanding of Australian consumer and human relations laws in Australia and New Zealand by LG Electronics management, which is top heavy with Korean management, is being questioned

today following recent allegations by their former head of Human resources in Australia, and the shocking revelations recently that their former South Korean Country Manager in New Zealand,

engaged in a criminal offence in an effort to destroy information at the request of Australian management following an investigation into price fixing by the New Zealand Commerce Commission.

Recently the South Korean Companies former Country Manager in New Zealand, who reported to Australian management pleaded guilty to destroying documentation relating to an investigation by

pleaded guilty in New Zealand to criminal charges after material requested by the Commission, was destroyed during their investigation into potential anti-competitive conduct of the New

Zealand operation of LG Electronics and LG Electronics Australia pay Ltd LG’s actions came unstuck when a whistleblower tipped off the Commission that What’s App messages between senior

management and Harvey Norman management had been deliberately deleted. They were also alerted to messaging between NZ and Australian LG Electronics management. Evidence reveals that Kim gave

instruction to delete the messages following a call from an “offshore senior manager” the NZ Commission claims. Kim claims that he merely passed on the instruction to delete messages from

the offshore senior manager who ChannelNews understands resided in Australia. As a result of the direction, two staff members deleted various WhatsApp messages with customers. Commission

Chairperson John Small said it was a blatant attempt to obstruct the investigation, some of the messages were later recovered. We can also reveal that at one stage LG management instructed

an account manager at Harvey Norman to clean their phones of the messages between LG management and the retailer before they were collected and cloned by the Commerce Commission. ChannelNews

is not accusing Harvey Norman of any wrong doing. Yesterday we revealed that the former Director of Human Resources at LG Electronics Australia Amanda Jackson, has mounted a case in the

Federal Court against the Company and it’s Managing Director Dan Lim for ‘unduly bullying and harassing her” during the execution of her job. She has also claimed that LG Electronics Korean

management, discriminates against Australians in favour of Korean employees and that head of LG Electronics Australian operation covered up an investigation into Korean employee Eun Sung

Cha, for allegedly engaging in misconduct. She claims that management were aware of the issuing of “unauthorised employment references” issued on LG letterhead by a member of LG’s air

conditioning staff for the purposes of supporting another person’s visa application to the Department of Home Affairs with her investigation apparently shut down by Lim. The investigation of

LG in New Zealand is not the first time that LG has fallen foul of consumer laws and regulators. At one stage in Australia the business was prevented following orders in the Federal Court

of Australia, of issuing press releases or marketing material without the material being vetted by lawyers after the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission accused LG Electronics

of misleading representations to two consumers, the local business was fined $160,000. The need for legal vetting lasted for three years before they could be trusted to publish information

that was not misleading. Last year senior marketing staff at LG openly lied to ChannelNews over the exit of a former long serving executive who had been terminated. In the New Zealand case

which resulted in senior management being charged with criminal offences the same management instructed the deletion of material the day after LG received correspondence from the Commission

legally requesting documentation. Commission Chair Dr John Small said the conduct showed a blatant disregard for the Commission’s processes and the law. Small claimed the questionable

conduct of LG management was sufficiently serious enough for the charges to be filed under the NZ Crimes Act. The Commission filed criminal charges after evidence showed Mr Kim instructed

former LG Key Account Manager, Nicholas Clarke, and another staff member, who has permanent name suppression, to delete any messages that might be considered an “issue”. Kim pleaded guilty

to a charge under the Crimes Act of wilfully attempting to obstruct the course of justice. Kim was discharged without conviction, following an assessment of his individual circumstances. Mr

Clarke and the other staff member pleaded guilty to offences of failing to comply with a statutory notice, in breach of the Commerce Act. Following assessments of the individual

circumstances of Mr Clarke and the other staff member, both were granted discharges without conviction. The Commission’s investigation into potential anti-competitive conduct in the supply

of televisions concluded with the Commission issuing a compliance letter to LG and a warning to Panasonic who no longer sells TVs in Australia or New Zealand. About Post Author David

Richards David Richards has been writing about technology for more than 30 years. A former Fleet Street journalist, he wrote the Award Winning Series on the Federated Ships Painters +

Dockers Union for the Bulletin that led to a Royal Commission. He is also a Logie Winner for Outstanding Contribution To TV Journalism with a story called The Werribee Affair. In 1997, he

built the largest Australian technology media company and prior to that the third largest PR company that became the foundation company for Ogilvy PR. Today he writes about technology and

the impact on both business and consumers.