A South Korean court has rejected Mercedes-Benz's request to cancel a multibillion-won penalty imposed on the carmaker for violating emission rules, judicial sources said Friday.

The environment ministry fined the German luxury carmaker's Korean unit about 7.8 billion won ($6.75 million) in 2017 for importing and selling 8,246 vehicles in 21 models without obtaining approval for changes in components controlling emissions and noise.

The Seoul Administrative Court ruled against the company in a suit it filed requesting the cancellation of the fine, according to the sources.

In December last year, Mercedes-Benz was also ordered to pay about 2.81 billion won in a fine on the same charges. An appeals court reduced the amount to about 2.7 billion won in April.

In response to the ruling, the German carmaker will decide on what action it will take after receiving a statement from the court, a company spokeswoman said over the phone. (Yonhap)