A commission official said he expects a decision on whether to investigate the matter to come early next year.

Yi Seuk-joon, who heads the Competition Policy Division of the commission, said there have been no complaints yet from competitors. The review was prompted by reports in the local South Korean press that alleged unfair pricing of chips, which could hurt smaller rivals.

Yi said that it was too early to discuss possible penalties facing Samsung.

A Samsung spokesman said that the company is cooperating with authorities but would not comment further.

Samsung began supplying NAND flash memory chips to Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple in the third quarter. The chips are used in some of Apple's iPod music players, such as the Nano and Shuffle, which store data on flash memory.