More than 30 million user data were leaked. The South Korean e-commerce platform Koupeng was fined over 400 million US dollars

The largest e-commerce platform in South Korea, Coupang, was fined a record $408 million by the South Korean authorities for causing the leakage of personal data of over 30 million users.

AFP reported that this is the highest fine ever imposed by South Korea on a data leakage incident, far exceeding the record of $88 million imposed on mobile operator SK Telecom last year.

The Seoul Personal Information Protection Commission issued a statement on Thursday (June 11th) saying that Kupeng violated its security obligations and collected personal data without legal basis. "The basic security measures were inadequate, including poor management of authentication keys and lax access control", which led to the leakage of personal data of approximately 37.5 million users.

The committee pointed out that Kupeng should have informed the affected individuals within 72 hours, but the company delayed the notification of the data leak. "As a result, the affected users were unable to promptly learn about the data leak incident and also lost the opportunity to take measures to prevent secondary damage."

The committee also stated that Kuipeng "illegally collected the online activity records of approximately 11.17 million users on third-party websites and applications, and stored them in a database that could identify individual identities."

Kuempo sincerely apologizes for the concerns this matter has caused to customers and the public, and promises to strengthen the data protection framework. "However, we regret to see that the committee's decision did not fully reflect the positive measures we took to prevent secondary damage, as well as the explanation based on the clear facts of the data leakage incident last year."

The company issued a statement saying that it would file a lawsuit. "After receiving the official ruling from the committee, we hope to clarify the truth through legal procedures."

This move by the South Korean government marks the conclusion of the lengthy investigation into Kukpo.

KuPon is the largest online retail platform in South Korea; its business is solely based in South Korea, but it is listed on the Wall Street. The accusation of large-scale data leakage first emerged in November last year and unexpectedly became a point of contention between Seoul and Washington.

In April this year, South Korean lawmakers jointly sent a letter to the United States, expressing their concern over the "unfair pressure" exerted by US politicians on Seoul's investigation into Kookmo.

This letter, signed by nearly 100 members of Congress, was issued after the Republicans in the US accused South Korea of conducting an investigation into Kookpo as a "discriminatory regulatory action against American enterprises".

According to local media reports, this controversy has also affected the high-level security talks between South Korea and the United States.

It is reported that when US Vice President Pence met with South Korean Prime Minister Kim Min-seok in Washington in January, he warned Seoul not to punish US technology companies including K-pop. Kim Min-seok insisted that the South Korean government was not targeting K-pop.

Professor Kim Dae-jong from the Business School of Seoul Sejong University pointed out that the large amount of fine imposed on Ku Po this time is bound to "once again trigger strong opposition from the United States".

He said: "Given that this fine amount is far higher than the maximum fine previously imposed on SK Telecom, Washington is expected to raise objections, arguing that this measure is too harsh."