Seoul Court dismisses Coupang's plea against fine for data leak

The Seoul Administrative Court has dismissed a plea filed by e-commerce company Coupang Corporation to stay the recovery of a fine. In June, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) imposed a fine of 423.58 billion won (approximately 315.72 million dollars) on Coupang. According to reports by Yonhap and The Korea Herald, this is the largest fine ever imposed by the regulator on a single company.

The fine was imposed due to a massive data leak that occurred last November, in which personal information such as names, phone numbers, and delivery details of between 3.37 crore and 3.7 crore users were leaked. Coupang had delayed reporting the incident. Additionally, the company has been fined 201.16 billion won for the unauthorised collection of online users' activities.

The court rejected the demand to suspend the recovery of the fine, as the court opined that the loss is at a restorable level. However, the court has granted 30 days to implement corrective measures for the protection of consumer information. The company had argued that immediate implementation could cause it immense loss, and accepting this, the court provided this relief.

Under personal information security laws, companies that leak data can be fined up to 3 per cent of their annual turnover. Coupang's average annual turnover over the last 3 years has been 36 trillion won. In this matter, some US officials and legal representatives expressed concern that the Korean branch of US-listed Coupang Inc. was being treated unfairly, which led to friction between Seoul and Washington.

Coupang has filed a separate administrative lawsuit seeking the cancellation of the fine measures taken by the PIPC, the date for the first hearing of which has not yet been decided.