SEOUL: Customs authorities raided Huawei Technologies’ Seoul office last month because the Chinese smartphone maker did not comply with the agency’s request to submit documents, the customs office said.
The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said it is reviewing documents that it collected from Huawei’s office in the capital. The agency obtained the warrant for the raids from the court.
“We decided to raid Huawei’s office because the company did not present some documents which we asked for,” a spokeswoman for the agency said.
But she declined to say what documents the agency got from the company.
The announcement came a few days after the National Assembly ratified a free trade agreement with China. Both countries agreed to the economic pact in June.
Huawei said it will cooperate with authorities on the matter.
“We are under probe by the customs office,” a spokeswoman for Huawei Korea said. “We will comply with the agency diligently.”
Huawei is the world’s third-largest smartphone maker, behind Samsung Electronics and Apple. It is a Shenzhen-based global information and communication technology solutions company whose telecom network equipment, IT products and solutions, and smart devices are used in 170 countries and regions.
It was ranked 228th on the Global Fortune 500 based on its revenue in 2014, which reached $46.5 billion. It is the largest telecommunications equipment maker in the world, having overtaken Ericsson in 2012.
Huawei Korea is expanding in Korea by offering facilities to the nation’s three telecommunication companies ― SK Telecom, KT and LG Uplus. Recently, it has drawn attention in the market for its new smartphone Mate8 that has a six-inch screen. The company’s smartphones X3 and Honor 5X have been praised for good quality at relatively low prices.
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