2024.07.22. The Fair Economy — The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 22nd that it is launching an all-out response in cooperation with local governments and the private sector to eradicate rip-off prices at major summer resorts as the summer vacation season begins in earnest.
The ministry will maintain a constant response system by linking the 'price countermeasures situation room' installed and operated by metropolitan and basic local governments nationwide for vacation season price stability management with summer resort price management.
Joint public-private inspection teams, made up of local merchants, consumer groups and responsible officials, will be deployed to major resorts to run campaigns aimed at preventing rip-off prices in advance and to conduct on-site inspections.
In addition, the rip-off price reporting center will be operated at all times, and if reports of unfair trade practices are received, the ministry plans to respond strongly, including considering filing criminal charges.
The Ministry will operate a focused inspection period for overpriced charges during the summer vacation from the 22nd to August 16, targeting restaurants, accommodations, and vacation goods sales outlets at vacation spots to check compliance with the price labeling system. This will allow for intensive crackdown on cases where excessively high prices are set to disadvantage consumers.
In addition, regional price officers — senior ministry officials at the director-general level — will conduct on-site inspections in their respective areas before the full vacation period begins and review how each local government is implementing its summer resort price stabilization plans.
Regional price officers in 17 metropolitan cities and provinces will work with local governments' Price Response Rooms to verify enforcement of rip-off crackdowns and compliance with price display rules. They will also ensure that follow-up actions are thoroughly managed after complaints of rip-off prices are received.
The ministry will also review whether support measures are in place for the recent problem of rip-off practices targeting foreign tourists. Such measures include providing multilingual guidance on how to report rip-off cases at resorts, displaying prices and quantities in foreign languages alongside Korean, and placing interpreters at rip-off complaint centers.
"As the peak vacation season begins, we will spare no effort in managing prices at summer resorts so that many visitors can enjoy a comfortable holiday without being hit by rip-off charges," said Han Sun-gi, director of the Ministry's Local Fiscal and Economic Affairs Division. "Going forward, we will continue to communicate with local governments and do our best to stabilize regional prices in the second half of the year."
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