Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Owners of bakery file suit against rat bread maker
By Lee Hyo-sik
A group of bakery owners, who claim they suffered steep falls in sales due to the recent “rat bread” controversy, have filed a compensation suit against the man who cooked up the case, court officials said Monday.
An owner of a Paris Baguette store in Pyeongtaek, about 70 kilometers south of Seoul, and six other operators of outlets of the nation’s largest bakery chain filed a suit with the Seoul Central District Court against the 35-year-old owner of a Tous Les Jours shop and his wife, demanding 15 million won in compensation for each store.
Kim put the rat’s body into a loaf of bread he baked himself on the morning of Dec. 23, took photos of it and uploaded them onto the Internet to steal customers from a Paris Baguette outlet that is located about 100 meters from his store, according to the police.
“His act clearly damaged the reputation of the affected bakery. It also seriously damaged the public image of Paris Baguette as a whole and worsened the bottom line of the affiliated bakeries. Kim should pay due compensation to those affected by his illicit act under civil law,” the bakery owners said in the complaint.
They also said it is unlikely that Kim orchestrated the rat bread fabrication alone, given his statements to the police and other circumstantial evidence, demanding Kim’s wife should also be held responsible.
On Dec. 23, Kim caused a huge public stir by posting photos of a loaf of bread containing a rat on an Internet message board, insisting the product was purchased at the nearby Paris Baguette shop a day earlier. He even voluntarily appeared before police, submitting the bread as evidence.
But the police then suspected that it might be a hoax cooked up by the accuser himself, considering he didn’t report it to the Paris Baguette directly, concealed his identity when posting the photos and failed to immediately answer a summons by the police.
After intense police questioning, Kim confessed that he fabricated the rat bread case to steal customers from a rival. He was then taken into custody, facing charges on violation of information protection and other related laws.