Netizens demand end to traders who cheat tourists

By Jason Pan / Staff reporter





Local authorities have been asked to crack down on price gouging by unscrupulous merchants, after foreigners reported being cheated by a fruit vendor at Taipei’s Shilin Night Market (士林夜市), among other incidents of perceived overcharging at popular attractions.

A Taiwanese netizen shared the experience of a female South Korean student at Taipei’s Shilin Night Market online, along with a photograph of fruit in seven small bags, which they said cost NT$1,500.

“The vendor told my Korean friend that the fruit sells for NT$30 per 100g. So NT$1,500 should be 5kg of fruit, but it looked nowhere near 5kg,” the netizen wrote. “Is the fruit at Shilin Night Market sprayed with gold dust?”

People went to Kaohsiung’s Liuho Night Market (六合夜市), where they bought 8.8kg of fruit for the same price.

Netizens also circulated news of people being cheated when buying food over the recent Tomb Sweeping Day holiday at various attractions and night markets in Taipei, as well as in Kenting, Hualien, Taitung and elsewhere.

The Shilin Night Market fruit vendor, surnamed Chen (陳), did not apologize when speaking to reporters.

“I have been selling here for 10 years, my fruit is top quality and can stand up to any test,” he said, adding that he charges high prices because he has overhead costs and high rent to pay.

“These unscrupulous fruit vendors target foreign tourists and outsiders as easy prey. Government officials and local business associations always wash their hands of it, saying they cannot control market prices,” social commentator Lucifer Chu (朱學恒) wrote yesterday.

Pofiteering is an offense under the Criminal Code, and if a buyer feels that they have paid excessively high prices due to inexperience and “spur of the moment decisionmaking,” they have the right to cancel the purchase, Consumers’ Foundation (消基會) chairman Yu Kai-hsiung (游開雄) said.

In response to the complaints, the Shilin Police Precinct sent officers to patrol the area and fined Chen NT$1,200 for operating a mobile stall that did not have a registered address.

Several merchants in the area said they supported a police crack down, adding that eight fruit vendors are involved in price gouging and they are driving tourists away.