What to have ready
A written report helps the authority identify the vehicle and investigate what happened.
- The vehicle number (차량번호), with the regional word. Korean plates read like
서울 12가 3456— the city word (Seoul), two digits, one Hangul syllable (here 가, "ga"), then four digits. Seoul's guidance flags this as "the most important item, so check it precisely" — a number without its city word may not identify a car. It is on the plate, on the sticker inside the door, on the dashboard placard and on the receipt. - When: date and time.
- Where: where you were picked up or refused.
- What happened, in a sentence or two.
- Who you are: name, phone number, email. You are not anonymous here, and that is deliberate — the outcome is sent back to you by text message.
Attach any available evidence:
- A trip record in Kakao T (the taxi-hailing app Koreans use) or k.ride is itself evidence. It carries the vehicle, the driver, the time, the route and the fare, timestamped by a third party. If you called the car in an app, you already have the strongest document in this list.
- The receipt. Since December 2025 Seoul receipts print in English alongside Korean and state whether a night or out-of-city surcharge was applied — which is exactly the fact most disputes turn on. Ask for a receipt and keep it with your trip details.
- A photograph of the plate, or of the meter reading at the moment you paid.
“I was overcharged or scammed” covers the same evidence discipline for scams and overcharging generally; use one complaint and attach everything.
Where to send it
| Route | What it is | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| 120 | Dasan Call Foundation (다산콜재단), Seoul's city call centre — 24 hours, 365 days, 02-120 from a mobile | Anything involving a Seoul taxi. This is the front door. |
| 1330 | the Korea Tourism Organization (한국관광공사) travel helpline, +82-2-1330 from abroad | Anywhere in Korea, and when you want it in your own language |
| touristcomplaint.or.kr | KTO's online complaint centre, in English, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, Russian, Malay and Indonesian | Almost always — see below |
| 1800-9008 | Seoul Tourism Complaint Center, 09:00–20:00 daily | Overcharging inside a Seoul tourist special zone, where compensation is possible |
| Jeju Tourist Complaint Center (제주관광불편신고센터) | Jeju's own one-stop centre | On Jeju |
Use the online form when you need to attach evidence. Of the 1,543 tourist complaints KTO (the Korea Tourism Organization) recorded in 2024, 1,298 (84.1%) arrived through the website and exactly 6 came by telephone. The phone lines can provide advice or interpretation. A written form lets you attach the evidence and keep a record of the report.
Two extra routes exist specifically for visitors and are easy to miss. Since 19 June 2025, Seoul has handed out business-card-sized slips with a QR code in English, Chinese and Japanese at the international departure halls of Incheon and Gimpo; the survey behind that code feeds straight into enforcement, and Seoul cross-checks what you enter against the vehicle record to decide whether to fine. And every one of Seoul's 71,000 taxis now carries a reporting sticker inside, with banners at 11 visitor districts and 78 taxi ranks.
The Seoul Tourism Complaint Center on 1800-9008 does something no other route does: it pays compensation for overcharging in shopping, food and accommodation inside a designated tourist special zone, to visitors staying under a month, claimed within 30 days. “I was overcharged or scammed” has the detail.
What happens next
Seoul separates investigation from decision to keep it fair, and says so: the average case takes about eight weeks. If the driver admits the violation when questioned, it closes within 10 days. If the driver denies it, a hearing and a review committee are required and it runs 30 to 60 days. You are updated by text at each stage.
The enforcement behind it is real and unusually specific. Seoul has run a dedicated squad since August 2015: officers at the airports and major visitor districts, including Myeongdong’s shopping area, the Hongdae university district, Itaewon and Gangnam Station. In 2024 they conducted 7,435 interviews with foreign passengers and found 345 violations. The QR route produced 487 foreign complaints between June and December 2025, of which 8 were confirmed as violations and penalised.
A complaint does not guarantee a refund. Ask the receiving authority how your case will be handled.
Was it actually illegal? Sometimes not
Article 16(1) of the Taxi Transport Business Development Act (택시운송사업의 발전에 관한 법률) forbids a taxi driver to do four things: refuse a passenger or put them out mid-journey without good reason, charge an improper fare, force a shared ride, or refuse to issue a receipt or accept a card where the equipment is fitted.
Seoul publishes its own worked list of what counts. A refusal includes: stopping in front of you, asking where you are going, and driving off; turning off the vacant light or falsely showing “reserved” (예약) in order to pick and choose; declining because the trip is too short; declining because it would need a U-turn and telling you to cross the road; declining because it is the opposite direction to where the driver is heading; accepting an app call and then not arriving; putting you out because you changed the destination after boarding; refusing to enter an alley that can be turned round in; and demanding money above the meter and putting you out when you refuse.
The same page lists what is not an offence, and this half is the one that saves you a wasted complaint:
- A Seoul-plated taxi may refuse to leave Seoul — for Bundang, Ilsan and so on. The exceptions, where it may not refuse, are Gwangmyeong, Wirye New Town, Incheon Airport and Gimpo Airport, which share an operating zone with Seoul. A Gyeonggi-plated taxi in Seoul may likewise refuse a Seoul-bound fare.
- Trying to board from a live traffic lane.
- Being too drunk to state a destination.
- Carrying something dangerous or offensive to the driver.
- Asking for a car further back in an orderly rank instead of the one at the front.
- Travelling with a pet that is not in a carrier.
- The driver having announced a shift change and returning to the depot within the hour.
What it costs the driver
Seoul's published penalty schedule for refusal, mid-trip ejection and overcharging, counted over a rolling two years:
| Offence | Fine | Licence |
|---|---|---|
| First | ₩200,000 | Warning |
| Second | ₩400,000 | 30-day suspension |
| Third | ₩600,000 | Qualification revoked |
Refusal and mid-trip ejection are the same statutory limb, so they are counted together — two refusals and one ejection inside two years ends the driver's career for two years. A separate ladder covers shared rides, refusing a card and refusing a receipt, with the same fines but shorter suspensions. Where the driver works for a company, the company is sanctioned too.
One thing specific to being foreign: in Seoul, refusal and overcharging of a foreign passenger are handled by the city itself, by the city's taxi policy division (택시정책과), while ordinary rudeness and domestic overcharging go to the local district office. Seoul took that power back from the districts in March 2017 precisely to make the outcome stick, and issued Korea's first-ever taxi licence revocation three months later.
How common this is
Taxis are the second largest source of tourist complaints in Korea. Of the 1,595 complaints the Korea Tourism Organization (한국관광공사) logged in 2024, 309 concerned taxis, behind only shopping and ahead of accommodation, airports and restaurants.
What is inside that number is not what most people expect:
| Taxi complaint, 2024 | Share |
|---|---|
| Overcharging or refusing to use the meter | 60.2% |
| Driver rudeness | 10.4% |
| Reckless or roundabout driving | 8.7% |
| Refusing to carry, or forcing you out mid-trip | 4.5% |
| Other (incl. app auto-payment confusion) | 16.2% |
The recorded complaints include both refusals and fare disputes. Complaint shares do not establish the probability of either happening on your trip.
Check any airport surcharge
Check any surcharge on the receipt. When Seoul analysed illegal taxi operations against foreign passengers, a wrongly applied 20% out-of-city surcharge was 84% of all cases, and 94% of them occurred at Incheon Airport. Seoul and Incheon Airport are in the same operating zone, so that surcharge must never appear on that trip. Seoul's own list of overcharging examples also names: starting the meter before you board; not pressing stop on arrival; taking a long way round without asking; and charging above the meter.
A worked case Seoul disposed of: on 4 December 2025 a driver ran Gimpo Airport to Yeonhui-dong, the meter read ₩32,600, and he took ₩56,000.
A 콜밴 — call van — is a licensed freight vehicle that may only carry a passenger who has luggage of at least 20 kg or 40,000 cm³. Its fares are unregulated, and fitting it with a meter is illegal. Seoul records a Japanese visitor whose call-van meter started at ₩4,500 and read ₩57,000 at the hotel. If you are unsure whether a vehicle is a taxi or a freight service, use the marked taxi rank and confirm the vehicle category.
