Two Former Employees Who Blew the Whistle on 'Coupang Blacklist' Referred to Prosecutors Without Detention

Suspected of violating the Information and Communications Network Act
Occupational embezzlement and other charges not referred to prosecutors

Two former employees who blew the whistle on allegations that Coupang Fulfillment Services, Coupang’s logistics subsidiary, maintained a blacklist restricting people’s employment have been referred to the prosecution.

In January, Kim Junho, a whistleblower who exposed the “Coupang blacklist,” enters the special counsel’s office to be questioned as a witness. Yonhap News Agency

On October 22, the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said it had referred Kim Junho, a former regional center HR team employee at Coupang Fulfillment Services, and one other person to the Suwon District Prosecutors’ Office without detention the previous day on suspicion of violating the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.

Kim is accused of accessing the company’s internal system without authorization after leaving the company, using the account of a person identified as A, and taking internal documents. A, who allowed Kim to use the account, was also referred to the prosecution.

Police concluded that the allegations of occupational breach of trust and violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, which the company had raised when filing its complaint, were not substantiated, and decided not to refer those allegations to the prosecution.

In February 2024, Kim had reported that Coupang Fulfillment Services compiled and maintained a list of people to avoid in order to restrict the reemployment of 16,450 logistics center workers for about six years starting in September 2017. At the time, the company countered that the documents were legitimate personnel evaluation records and filed a complaint against Kim and others, alleging that they had leaked internal documents without authorization.

After facing criticism from politicians and labor groups, Coupang Fulfillment Services apologized at a National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee hearing in January 2025 and withdrew its complaint. However, the investigation continued because offenses involving the infringement of information and communications networks are not subject to the rule that prosecution requires a victim’s complaint.

Meanwhile, the People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy issued a statement on October 22, calling for the whistleblowers to be cleared of charges under the Act on the Protection of Public Interest Whistleblowers and saying that authorities should “take into account the retaliatory nature of the complaint and the purpose of the whistleblowing.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.