Ex-Socar CEO says lawmaker to blame for Tada collapse

Former Socar CEO Lee Jae-woong speaks to the local media at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, in March 2020 to oppose against the revision in the domestic transportation law. [YONHAP]

The former CEO of Socar, once a leading car rental start-up, blamed a lawmaker from the main opposition party for drafting a bill that led to the collapse of the start-up's van-hailing service Tada.

Lee Jae-woong criticized the Democratic Party (DP)'s Park Hong-keun for “stifling innovation” on Tuesday, after Park led the passage of the so-called Tada Prohibition Act in 2020 which revised the domestic transportation law that in turn prohibited Socar's Tada Basic service.

“Without any experience on mobility innovation or expertise in transportation, Park held back a new industry solely because there were a lot of taxi operators in his district,” Lee posted on Facebook. “He passed the Tada Prohibition Act for the sole benefits of taxi drivers in his district with no thought for citizens' convenience.”

Earlier this month, the nation’s top court found Lee and Park Jae-uk, former CEO of VCNC, an affiliate of Socar that operated Tada, not guilty of violating the country's transportation laws.

Lee and Park Jae-uk were indicted without detention in 2019 for operating Tada, which was accused of violating the Passenger Transport Service Act with its van-hailing service Tada Basic. Park now heads Socar as CEO.

Lee stepped down from his position in 2020 to take responsibility for the suspension of Tada Basic.

“What we were devastated by was politicians like Park pushing forward with the prohibition act, claiming it to be innovative to taxis even when Socar and its service were found not guilty at the first court,” Lee wrote.

“I made multiple requests for Park to meet me, or at least open a public hearing, to hear my side of the story before the revised bill passed. But each time, I received replies such as ‘I don’t need to meet you,’ that I was just ‘buying time’ or mocking me, saying ‘don’t pretend to be a lone innovator.’ At the end of the day, I did not get the chance to meet him, not even once.”

After the top court handed down its decision on June 1, DP’s floor leader Park Kwang-on, who was also on board with passing of the revised bill, made a public apology, saying “I fully accept criticisms that Tada’s win is equivalent to a defeat on the National Assembly’s part. Politics was slow to follow the new wave of change.”

Park Hong-keun, on the other hand, refuted the floor leader’s comment, saying the apology is “degrading the former Moon Jae-in administration and the National Assembly's efforts and painting them as a group that held back a new industry.”

BY LEE JAE-LIM [lee.jaelim@joongang.co.kr]