The nation’s two conglomerates Lotte and SK lost their licenses to their rival bidders Doosan and Shinsegae in running their duty free shops located in Lotte World Tower and Walkerhill Hotel.
The licenses were formerly renewed every 10 years automatically if there is no special ground. However, as the customs law was changed in 2013 on the ground of preventing conglomerates' monopoly, Lotte and SK, which already run their duty free stores, were subject to compete for the licenses with new bidders.
Lotte's official said, "We spent around 300 billion won to launch the duty free shop in the tower with an aim of drawing Chinese tourists. Now, all the efforts were in vain."
SK Networks, an affiliate of Korea's fourth-largest conglomerate SK Group, also failed to get permission to run both the existing duty free shop located in Walkerhill Hotel and a new store in Dongdaemun market.
Following the failures to get licenses of the existing shops, the job security issue from the stores will be on the surface, according to market insiders. Currently, there are around 1,300 and 900 employees in Lotte and Walkerheel's duty free shops each. Although new companies are willing to guarantee their jobs, it will be inevitable to see some losing their jobs.
