Photo : YONHAP News
E-commerce giant Coupang has been ordered to pay a record fine of nearly 624-point-seven billion won, or around 409 million U.S. dollars, regarding a breach of personal information from 37-point-five million of its customers.
The penalty was finalized on Wednesday during a plenary session of the Personal Information Protection Commission, which includes 423-point-six billion won for Coupang’s violation of a duty to protect personal information, as well as a civil penalty of 16-point-eight million won.
An additional fine of 201-point-one billion won was levied for Coupang’s unauthorized collection of data regarding online activities by around eleven-point-17 million of its customers and storage of such information in its database after identifying the users.
The imposed payment is the largest to date for a single data breach case, as well for a single company over multiple legal violations.
The commission issued correction orders for Coupang to reinforce safety measures to prevent a recurrence and to guarantee the practical role of its chief privacy officer, as well as recommended the company to improve handling of data after membership cancellation.