During the Height of COVID-19, 'Unregistered Airbnb' Earned Over 100 Million KRW... Fine Only 5 Million KRW

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] A man in his 30s who was prosecuted for operating an 'unregistered Airbnb' and earning over 100 million won in sales last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic became full-scale, was sentenced to a fine of 5 million won. Airbnb is an online lodging sharing platform that mediates renting out spare rooms to travelers.

According to the court on the 7th, Chief Judge Choi Changhoon of the Criminal Division 8 at the Seoul Central District Court recently handed down this sentence to A (39, male), a shopping mall operator, who was charged with violating the Public Health Control Act.

A was prosecuted for operating an unregistered lodging business via Airbnb in six officetel units in Seocho-gu, Seoul, from February to December last year. He is accused of setting the daily lodging fee at about 110,000 won and earning a total sales amount of approximately 130.6 million won over 557 transactions.

At the time, A leased the officetels under the name of his acquaintance B, and it was investigated that he agreed to pay B 500,000 won monthly on the condition that B would take full responsibility if caught by investigative authorities. The Airbnb account and the payment receiving bank account were also under B's name.

It was confirmed that A had previously committed related offenses in Mapo-gu, Seoul, and had a summary order for a fine confirmed.

Article 20, Paragraph 1 of the former Public Health Control Act applied to A stipulates that "If an unregistered lodging business is operated, the offender may be punished by imprisonment for up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million won." Additionally, officetels are classified as office facilities under the Building Act and therefore cannot be used for lodging businesses.

However, in December last year, the Public Health Control Act was partially amended, strengthening the punishment standards for unregistered lodging businesses to "imprisonment for up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million won."

Chief Judge Choi stated, "Considering that the unregistered lodging business was operated for about 11 months, the total sales were substantial, and there is a prior record of a fine for a similar offense," and "also taking into account the degree of social harm caused by this crime."

He also ruled, "The criminal facts at the Mapo-gu business location, where the summary order was confirmed, and the facts of this case at the Seocho-gu business location cannot be evaluated as a comprehensive crime (where multiple criminal acts constitute one crime)."

Since neither the prosecutor nor A appealed, this ruling was finalized as is.

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