President Lee: Coupang Sanctions "Follow Law and Policy"... U.S. Group Says "Korea's Regulations Aren't Discriminatory"

President Lee Emphasizes Nondiscriminatory Penalties... "Without Regard to a Company's Characteristics"
U.S. Citizens' Group Also Rebuts Claims of "Discriminatory Regulations Against Coupang"
Five U.S. Investment Firms Pursue ISDS... Accused of Seeking Trade Pressure
Also Tried to Apply Tariff Pressure Under Section 301 of the Trade Act

President Lee Jae-myung has repeatedly emphasized that penalties over Coupang’s personal data breach are not aimed at any particular company, but are imposed in accordance with the law and government policy. Now, a report by a prominent U.S. citizens’ group has directly refuted claims that the Korean government’s regulations are discriminatory. The report says Coupang’s U.S. investors are trying to influence Korea’s law enforcement through international investment disputes (ISDS) and tariff pressure. As administrative sanctions against an individual company have become an issue in Korea-U.S. relations, debate over Korea’s regulatory authority is also intensifying.

Yonhap News Agency

According to Public Citizen, a U.S. citizens’ group, the organization released a report on Oct. 29 (local time) in the form of a policy memo titled “Coupang’s Improper Pressure Campaign to Weaponize U.S. Trade Policy Against Korea’s Digital Regulations.” The report argues in particular that Coupang’s investors are portraying Korea’s privacy and fair-trade regulations as discriminatory toward U.S. companies and encouraging the U.S. government to apply trade pressure. Public Citizen was founded in 1971 by prominent U.S. consumer advocate Ralph Nader. It is a respected public-interest watchdog funded by individual donations and foundation grants, without government funding.

At a work briefing by the Personal Information Protection Commission at the Blue House on July 16, 2026, President Lee said, “There seems to be a company making the claim, ‘Isn’t this being done because I’m being singled out?’” He added, “I hope it will be explained clearly that this was done in accordance with the law and policy, without taking the characteristics of any particular company into consideration.” Although he did not name the company directly, his remarks were interpreted as referring to Coupang.

President Lee also stressed that penalties for personal data breaches should be far higher than the cost of data protection to prompt companies to take preventive action. Song Kyung-hee, chair of the Personal Information Protection Commission, responded that violations of the law are dealt with rigorously and fairly, regardless of whether the violator is a country or a company. In June 2026, the commission imposed a total fine of KRW 624.681 billion on Coupang. Of that amount, KRW 423.575 billion was for violations related to the personal data breach, while KRW 201.106 billion was for separate violations, including the unauthorized collection of users’ online activity data. At the time, the commission determined that the personal information of about 37.55 million people had been leaked. Coupang later filed an administrative lawsuit challenging the fine.

Public Citizen noted that South Korean authorities’ sanctions do not apply only to U.S. companies. The report cited cases in which the Personal Information Protection Commission had sanctioned not only Google and Meta but also SK Telecom, and the Fair Trade Commission had sanctioned domestic companies such as Naver and Kakao, as well as U.S. companies. It said that a company’s nationality alone does not make a sanction discriminatory, and that the level of a penalty may vary depending on the number of users and the scale of the harm.

The report also pointed to the close ties between the U.S. tech industry and trade authorities. Emails obtained by Public Citizen through information disclosure requests show that, in February 2025, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) asked the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), ahead of a meeting with Korean trade officials, to include digital regulations on the agenda and share the meeting’s outcome. The report criticized such contacts as a channel for incorporating the interests of U.S. technology companies into trade policy.

Coupang’s U.S. investors have in fact challenged the South Korean government’s principle of nondiscriminatory law enforcement. On Jan. 22, 2026, Coupang investors GreenOak Capital and Altimeter Capital submitted a notice of intent to seek ISDS arbitration against the South Korean government under the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). They claim that excessive investigations and measures by the South Korean government and National Assembly caused them billions of dollars in investment losses. Three other investment firms, including Foxhaven Capital, later joined them.

The two investors also petitioned the USTR to launch an investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act, arguing that Korea’s law enforcement discriminates against U.S. companies. The provision allows retaliatory measures, including additional tariffs, when unfair trade practices are found. The petition was withdrawn in March 2026, but the investors maintained the possibility of pursuing ISDS.

At the time, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy conveyed to the U.S. side its position that it would be inappropriate to make an individual company’s personal data breach the subject of a Section 301 investigation. In its report, Public Citizen also urged U.S. policymakers to focus on strengthening the accountability of domestic companies rather than attacking other countries’ privacy and competition laws.

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