Reports of taxi fare overcharge for foreigners top 6,000 in 5 years: lawmaker
The number of complaints submitted by foreigners on alleged taxi fare overcharges in Seoul over the past five years came to more than 6,000, but corrective measures have been taken on only about 3 percent of them, a lawmaker said Sunday. The number of such reports submitted between 2021 and August this year totaled 6,481, Rep. Mo Gyeong-jong of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea said, citing…
In the past five years, Seoul has received over 6,000 complaints from foreigners regarding alleged taxi fare overcharges, according to Rep. Mo Gyeong-jong, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party of Korea. However, corrective action was only taken in approximately 3 percent of these cases, he stated, referencing data from the Seoul city government. The total number of complaints lodged between 2021 and August 2022 was 6,481, he said.
Out of all the complaints, only 204 cases (3.1 percent) received administrative measures. Actions taken in these cases included suspending or canceling licenses in 28 instances, while the remaining 176 cases were only met with warnings. A significant majority of the reported cases, 4,368 or over 67 percent, were closed internally due to challenges in verifying an overcharge or because the complainants withdrew their complaints voluntarily, according to the data cited by Rep. Mo.
In 2013, the city government amended its policy on taxi fare overcharge complaints, enabling foreigners to apply for a compensation of 500,000 won ($374) should their complaint lead to an administrative measure. Despite this policy adjustment, there has been no recorded instance where a taxi driver was penalized for such overcharges, Rep. Mo pointed out.
Written by urgent.news from The Korea Times's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
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