Gyeonggi-do Launches Comprehensive Investigation into 'Illegal Activities' of 227 Rental Car Companies

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province is launching a full-scale investigation into illegal activities by rental car companies.

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police for Fairness announced on the 12th that it plans to conduct an intensive investigation to eradicate illegal rental car companies that threaten the safety of residents.

According to the current "Passenger Transport Service Act," to operate a car rental business, one must register with the competent authority after securing at least 50 vehicles, a garage, and an office.

However, unregistered companies operate rental car businesses without registration by receiving vehicles registered for rental use in forms such as consignment to avoid the cost burden of securing vehicles and garages.

These unregistered rental car companies earn profits by investing less money compared to legally registered companies and disrupt the fair market economy order by operating without registration and obtaining unfair gains.

In particular, they illegally rent vehicles to unlicensed persons and minors, thereby threatening the safety of residents.

In fact, in 2018 in Anseong, a minor who rented a vehicle from an unregistered rental car operator drove at high speed with four friends, crashed into a building, and all occupants died.

The Special Judicial Police for Fairness plans to conduct a full investigation of all 25,400 vehicles from 227 registered rental car companies in the province this year. They aim to root out unregistered rental car companies operating under consignment systems and eradicate widespread illegal activities in the rental car industry.

The main investigation targets are acts where rental business operators provide idle vehicles to unregistered operators for a certain fee and operate rental businesses without registration by receiving rental vehicles in lease or consignment forms.

The "Passenger Transport Service Act" (Article 12) prohibits the use of another's name, and both the rental business operator who provides the vehicle and the unregistered operator are subject to "imprisonment for up to 2 years or a fine of up to 20 million won."

The province is currently investigating cases where about 20 vehicles from illegally registered rental business operators are provided in consignment form and operated as car rental businesses without registration with the competent authority.

Kim Young-su, head of the Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police for Fairness, emphasized, "We will focus our investigative capabilities to completely eliminate unfair criminal acts that threaten residents' safety and obtain unfair gains so that honest residents can compete fairly."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.