Daegu City Reports Kakao Taxi to Fair Trade Commission... Excessive Call Fees of 3.3~4.8% Charged

Daegu City reported to the Fair Trade Commission regarding the unfair collection of excessive call fees by a monopolistic taxi platform company with a dominant market position, in order to resolve the difficulties faced by the taxi industry in the Daegu area.

'Kakao,' which controls over 90% of the taxi app market, operates its franchise business by leveraging its monopolistic position and charges taxi operators a commission fee ranging from 3.3% to 4.8% of their sales.

Sangyeok Government Complex, Daegu City.

The commission fee is excessively collected by including not only sales generated through Kakao Taxi calls but also income from roaming operations and Daeguro Taxi app usage in the sales amount, increasing the burden on the taxi industry.

Currently, there are about 13,500 taxis operating in Daegu, with 4,700 vehicles registered under the Kakao franchise taxis, accounting for 35% of all taxis, and 78% (10,500 vehicles) registered under Daeguro Taxi, with a significant number of vehicles registered in both services.

There is a contradiction in that the Kakao franchise fee (around 200,000 KRW) includes revenue income through Daeguro Taxi (200 KRW per call, up to 30,000 KRW per month), which has led to complaints and demands for improvement from the taxi industry.

Daegu City viewed this as an unfair trade practice violating the 'Act on the Fairness of Franchise Transactions' and filed a report to the Fair Trade Commission on the 10th of this month.

Kim Daeyoung, Director of the Transportation Bureau of Daegu City, said, “As the platformization of the taxi industry is rapidly progressing, it is necessary to establish a fair trade order. We will continuously listen to the difficulties of the taxi industry to ensure they are not unfairly treated by the abuse of monopolistic power and will promote policies for the development of taxis.”

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