SEJONG -- Korea's anti-trust regulator is looking into whether some clauses of foreign online travel firms have violated the country's fair competition rules, an industry source said Tuesday. 

The probe by the Korea Fair Trade Commission into foreign online travel firms, including Hotels.com, Agoda, Expedia and Booking.com, was begun from the second-half of last year, according to the source. 

It is the first time that foreign online travel firms are under scrutiny over their clauses on reservation and cancellation. 

The probe is said to have centered on clauses by the foreign online travel firms that have imposed their own commission fees when consumers in Korea cancel their reservations, a practice that is not in line with the commission's standard, the source said. (Yonhap)