Coupang Investors Want US to Investigate S. Korea’s Handling of Data Breach

Last year, Seattle-based eCommerce company Coupang suffered a data breach affecting millions of customers.

Now, a pair of Coupang investors has called on the United States government to investigate South Korea’s handling of the incident, Reuters reported Thursday (Jan. 22). In addition to the investigation, tech investors Greenoaks and Altimeter said the U.S. could also impose trade remedies in response to what they said was discriminatory treatment of Coupang.

The investors filed arbitration claims against South Korea under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, accusing Seoul of launching a campaign against Coupang in the wake of the data breach that has led to billions of dollars in losses for investors, according to the report.

The investors petitioned the U.S. Trade Representative to investigate South Korea’s actions and impose “appropriate trade remedies, potentially including tariffs and other sanctions,” contending that the response to the breach went beyond typical regulatory enforcement, the report said.

South Korea’s Trade Minister Yeo Han-koo has said the government is not discriminating against Coupang and that U.S. officials had “misunderstandings,” per the report. He added that the “unprecedented” data leaks, followed by what he characterized as Coupang’s inadequate response, are separate from trade and diplomatic issues.

Coupang, considered its country’s answer to Amazon, announced in November that the personal data of more than 33 million customers was compromised in a data breach, said to be the largest on record for South Korea.

The breach was limited to customers’ names, contact info, shipping addresses and some order histories, but not login information or payment details.

The company last month said it would compensate those customers, all of whom are based in Korea, offering vouchers worth up to 55,000 won ($38) to each person affected.

Coupang is also facing an investor class action lawsuit, which accuses the company of misleading investors about its data security practices and failing to disclose the breach in a timely manner.

In other cybersecurity news, artificial intelligence is allowing companies to engage in intervention earlier in the attack cycle by spotting coordinated behavior and emerging risk signals before fraud gets a chance to scale.

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