South Korea's land ministry has uncovered widespread unfair practices against small businesses operating at highway rest stops, including delayed payments and pressure to terminate contracts. The government plans to take strong measures, including contract terminations and bidding restrictions, against rest stop operators found to have engaged in unfair practices.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) said Thursday that it received a total of 58 reports after conducting an emergency full-scale investigation from Nov. 13 to 30 into unfair practices, including unpaid supply payments, targeting small businesses operating at highway rest stops. The ministry is verifying the facts and pursuing follow-up actions on these cases.
The investigation followed President Lee Jae-myung's directive last year to supervise the operating structure of rest stops, after he pointed out that food prices at rest stops were abnormally high.
The investigation confirmed unpaid supply payments totaling 5.3 billion won at seven rest stops, including Giheung Leased Rest Stop, Giheung Private Rest Stop, Chungju Rest Stop, and Manghyang Rest Stop.
Of the unpaid amount, approximately 4.8 billion won has been paid so far. The Korea Expressway Corporation is operating a legal consultation center and supporting legal procedures such as seizure to resolve the remaining unpaid amounts.
In particular, at Giheung Rest Stop, there were indications that some small businesses were asked to terminate their contracts or vacate their premises during the process of paying the overdue amounts.
Numerous instances of so-called "gapjil," or abuse of power, by intermediate operators were also revealed. Reports were filed alleging that operators passed on costs such as water supply and drainage facility management fees and signboard installation costs—which they should have borne themselves—to tenant businesses, or forced them to use food ingredients more expensive than market prices.
Cases of unpaid employee wages and illegal subleasing of store operating rights were also confirmed. Some tenant businesses claimed that when they filed complaints with the Korea Expressway Corporation, the identities of the complainants were relayed to operators, resulting in retaliation.
Allegations were also raised that former Korea Expressway Corporation officials were involved in rest stop operations. Reports were filed alleging that retirees of the corporation were employed at subsidiaries of intermediate operators and engaged in lobbying activities, or received referral fees from small businesses seeking to enter rest stops in exchange for connecting them with operators.
The land ministry and Korea Expressway Corporation plan to create a structure that can expel operators confirmed to have engaged in unfair practices from the market. Going forward, if unpaid supply payments or abuse of power are detected, punitive deductions will be imposed in rest stop operation service evaluations, and contract terminations will be pursued. Companies with unpaid supply payments will also face significant deductions in future bidding processes.
The ministry plans to take strict action against related companies after verifying the facts based on the ongoing audit results and reports received. It will also prepare measures to prevent recurrence, including introducing a direct contract system between public institutions and tenant small businesses, and blocking the involvement of former Korea Expressway Corporation officials.
"Through this full-scale investigation, we have confirmed numerous unfair practices that had not been exposed previously," Land Minister Kim Yoon-duk said. "We plan to thoroughly implement follow-up measures and recurrence prevention measures to fundamentally correct unfair practices at highways and use this as an opportunity to enhance public benefits."
"For damages unfairly suffered by small businesses, such as the forced eviction of small businesses at Giheung Private Rest Stop, we will work with the Korea Expressway Corporation to devise recovery measures so that small businesses can get back on their feet," he added.
