Seoul's Gwangjang Market, a popular destination for foreign visitors.
Despite the rainy weekday morning, it is bustling with tourists.
Controversy over rip-off prices has flared up here multiple times.
[Do you have water? How much is it? (It's 2,000 won.)]
Vendors have been selling items not listed on the price tags or charging more than the marked prices.
[Daiki Fukui / Foreign Tourist: If a store overcharges like that (absurdly), I guess we have no choice but to go (somewhere else).]
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has tightened administrative penalties to eradicate overcharging.
Previously, a first offense for overcharging resulted only in a corrective order, but starting yesterday (September 1), businesses face immediate suspension of operations.
A first violation carries a 5-day suspension, a second violation 10 days, and a third violation 20 days.
The policy applies to 960,000 restaurants nationwide, including general restaurants, snack bars, and fast-food franchises.
However, street vendors are not classified as business operators under the Food Sanitation Act, meaning they are not subject to operations suspensions.
Even within the same market, restaurants officially licensed as food service establishments are subject to sanctions, while street vendors are not.
[Restaurant Owner: What is the point of that (suspension)? Not a single such issue has come up from proper stores; it only happened at street vendors...]
[Lee Sung-bok / Street Vendor: With so much controversy over overcharging, all the (street vendor) merchants are making efforts among themselves...]
Even if customers are forced to take extra items added to their ordered menu and charged more, or if prices are outrageously higher than other stores from the beginning, they are excluded from sanctions as long as the prices are displayed on the tags, leaving them dependent on self-disciplinary measures by merchant associations.
(Reported by Han Sung-hee | Produced by Yoon Sung-sik | Camera input by Lee Byeong-joo | Video edited by Park Na-young | Produced by SBS Digital News)
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