500 Million KRW Reward for Reporting Subleasing and Permission Lending at Gangseo Agricultural Wholesale Market Stores

Special Measures to Eradicate Illegal Subleasing and Other Violations at Gangseo Agricultural Products Wholesale Market

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The Seoul Agro-Fisheries & Food Corporation (President Kim Kyung-ho) has recently decided to implement special measures to prevent the recurrence of unpaid shipment payments.

Since illegal activities such as subleasing of stores are evident in this unpaid shipment payment incident, the corporation has formed a ‘Special Task Force’ to eradicate these issues. The task force will prepare recurrence prevention measures divided into three areas: transaction order enforcement, system improvement, and education and publicity.

Since April 1, the corporation has been intensively cracking down on illegal activities such as store subleasing, license lending, unauthorized auction house operations, and unreported transactions. It is also operating an ‘Illegal Transaction Reporting Center’ (daytime 2640-6054, 6055 / nighttime 6095, 6097). A reward of 5 million KRW will be given for accepted and completed reports.

The corporation is collecting inappropriate payment settlement cases through frequent telephone surveys targeting shippers and will continue to monitor any irregularities thereafter.

To fundamentally prevent recurrence, the corporation plans to improve the market wholesaler transaction reporting system. When a shipper submits a delivery note and the market wholesaler inputs it into the integrated settlement system, a service will be completed by May to send the delivery note registration information to the shipper via text message. A system allowing direct inquiry of delivery note registration information will be established within the first half of the year.

The corporation will request amendments to related laws and ordinances to strengthen legal penalties for illegal activities. If a wholesale market corporation or market wholesaler engages in illegal activities such as unauthorized operations or store subleasing, the current first warning will be strengthened to a three-month business suspension, and upon a second violation, the designation may be canceled.

It will impose reporting obligations on the operation status of payment settlement organizations and the unloading details of unloading companies (unions). Additionally, the special contract period for market wholesaler payment settlements, currently up to 30 days, will be shortened to a maximum of 15 days.

Furthermore, the corporation plans to continuously inform shippers that protection and support are possible only when shipper reports and standard delivery note submissions are completed. It emphasized the need for active guidance and interest from the government, local governments, and producer organizations in this regard.

At the same time, the corporation stated it will strengthen education and publicity to promote compliance among market distributors, eradicate illegal activities such as store subleasing, and do its best to create a more trustworthy market.

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