Seoul court temporarily suspends 201.16 billion won fine against Coupang
Key Facts
On November 6, the Seoul Administrative Court granted Coupang a temporary stay of a 201.16 billion won fine imposed by the Personal Information Protection Commission for collecting users’ online activity records without authorization. The suspension covers the fine, corrective orders and related disclosure order, The Korea Herald reported. It remains in effect until 30 days after the first-instance ruling in the underlying lawsuit in which the company is challenging the regulatory measures. The decision gives the company time before the penalties are enforced, but does not determine their legality or end the dispute with the regulator. The case concerns the collection of usage data and is separate from the customer data breach case, which resulted in another fine.
The suspended fine centers on digital behavior records, not the account data breach in the other case. The Personal Information Protection Commission estimated that about 37.55 million people were affected by the separate data breach, including Coupang members and nonmembers, according to Chosun Biz. The different subject matter of the two cases shows that the regulatory actions involve separate tracks: the company’s collection of user activity records and a breach that exposed personal data. In the first track, the court suspended enforcement of the penalty and accompanying orders until 30 days after the first-instance ruling. In the second, the court did not approve a suspension of the monetary fine.
In the data breach case, the court rejected Coupang’s request to suspend the 423.58 billion won fine, The Korea Herald reported on November 5. It granted the company a 30-day suspension of corrective measures in the same case. The two requests therefore had different outcomes: enforcement of the fine and orders was suspended in the activity-records case, while the request to suspend the monetary fine was rejected in the breach case and corrective measures were suspended for a limited period. This distinction leaves the larger fine in the breach track in force, while temporarily suspending enforcement of the fine related to browsing records. The ruling in either track does not mean the underlying challenge has been resolved.
The company is pursuing two separate lawsuits challenging the regulatory measures related to each case. The Korea Herald reported on November 5 that a date had not been set for the first hearing in the lawsuit seeking to overturn punitive measures related to the data breach. The absence of a hearing date meant the challenge to those measures remained open at that time, alongside the court’s decision on the request to suspend enforcement. The suspension of the fine for collecting activity records remains in effect until the first-instance ruling in its underlying lawsuit and for 30 days thereafter. The report did not give a date for the first-instance ruling.
In trading, Coupang shares listed in the United States closed at $16.42 per share on November 5, according to EL7 data. The closing price came the day before the Seoul court’s November 6 decision, so it does not represent a market reaction to the temporary stay ruling. The available EL7 data did not include the session’s opening, low or high prices, and this report provided no daily comparison. The ruling remains a temporary procedural development in a regulatory dispute with two tracks, while challenges to the underlying penalties continue. The date of the first hearing in the separate lawsuit concerning measures in the breach case had not been set, according to the newspaper’s November 5 report.