$410M punishment: South Korea slaps Coupang with record data breach fine
South Korea’s Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) has imposed a record $410 million (624.7 billion won) fine on e-commerce giant Coupang Corp. for privacy violations, Yonhap reports.
The violations included a massive data breach that exposed the personal information of more than 37 million users.
The penalty includes 423.6 billion won for the breach itself and an additional 201.1 billion won for unauthorized collection of user activity records and other violations. It is the largest fine ever levied by the regulator against a single company, surpassing the previous record of 134.8 billion won imposed on SK Telecom in 2025.
The breach, belatedly reported last November, compromised names, phone numbers, and delivery details of approximately 37.5 million people – 33.2 million Coupang members and 4.3 million non-members. This figure is significantly higher than the 33.67 million accounts initially identified by a joint probe.
Coupang expressed regret over the fine and said it intends to clarity the facts through legal procedures.
Earlier, it was reported that Coupang would face possibility of record fine over massive data breach.
