Coupang beset on all sides after data leak sparks full-scale regulatory assault

Members of the Korea Nationwide Council of Shopper Organizations maintain a rally urging Coupang members to stop the service in Jonggak, central Seoul, on Dec. 17, 2025. [NEWS1]

 
The turmoil at Coupang, triggered by an enormous knowledge leak, has turn into a full-blown regulatory danger, with the New York-listed e-commerce firm doubtlessly dealing with operational suspension amid quite a few ongoing investigations, together with accusations starting from knowledge safety failures to unfair enterprise practices and inadequate labor protections.
 
The investigation additionally entails a number of authorities ministries, together with the Truthful Commerce Fee (FTC), the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Ministry of Employment and Labor, in addition to the Private Data Safety Fee, all of that are inspecting Coupang from varied angles. 
 
Most lately, the police summoned Harold Rogers, interim CEO of Coupang, for questioning for the second time as a part of an investigation into the corporate’s alleged wrongdoing, in line with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Company on Monday, after he didn’t adjust to the primary request to seem. Former CEO Park Dae-jun appeared final week as a witness over a luncheon assembly final September with Kim Byung-kee, the previous flooring chief of the ruling Democratic Social gathering.

The police raid Coupang headquarters in Songpa District, southern Seoul, on Dec. 9, 2025, over knowledge leak. [NEWS1]

 
Alleged violations of FTC regulation
 
On the middle of the crackdown is Korea’s antitrust watchdog, which is investigating 4 allegations towards Coupang, the nation’s largest e-commerce platform, which disclosed in November that the non-public knowledge of 33.7 million customers had been leaked. 
 
It’s investigating allegations that Coupang unfairly charged promoting charges to third-party sellers and is reviewing doable sanctions. The motion in query dates again to 2024, when Coupang is estimated to have obtained a complete of two.34 trillion gained ($1.6 billion) from third-party sellers on its platform within the type of promoting and promotional charges, low cost coupons and gross sales incentives, in line with the FTC knowledge. That represents round 9.5 % of its complete direct-purchase transactions.  
 
Such conduct was a violation of the Act on Truthful Transactions in Massive Retail Enterprise, in line with the FTC, which is scheduled to announce the result of its sanctions assessment on the agenda within the coming days.  
 
Based on the act, large-scale distributors can obtain gross sales incentives solely when the aim and technique of cost have been agreed upfront by way of a contract. It additionally stipulates that the portion of gross sales promotion occasion prices borne by suppliers should not exceed 50 %.    


Coupang additionally faces a pending Supreme Courtroom case over the FTC’s 2021 order requiring corrective measures and imposing a 3.3 billion gained positive for shifting promotional prices onto suppliers and pressuring them to boost costs on competing platforms. 
 
The authorities might impose varied penalties if mandatory, “together with a suspension of enterprise operations,” relying on what info was leaked, the extent of the injury and whether or not Coupang is taking acceptable measures to remediate the hurt,” mentioned FTC Chairperson Ju Biung-ghi in late December.
 
Ju repeated that warning on Monday, saying that the FTC “could droop Coupang’s operations if it fails to adjust to an order, or if the authority determines that the order itself doesn’t adequately treatment shopper hurt.” 
 
The FTC had mentioned in December that it’s “pursuing a coverage to implement a class-action-like group lawsuit system,” noting that such a system is “positively value contemplating.” The system permits some victims to file a lawsuit, and in the event that they win, the ruling applies to all affected victims, enabling them to obtain compensation as effectively.
 

 
The FTC can be trying into whether or not Coupang bundled its paid membership, which will probably be dropped at a full fee assembly for assessment, in addition to demanded most-favored remedy from retailers on its meals supply platform and handed prices on to contractors for its private-label model merchandise. Coupang’s service expands to over-the-top providers and meals supply apps, all included in its Wow membership subscription.
 
“Coupang was in a position to develop to this extent as a result of the authorized framework to control on-line distributors has been inadequate,” mentioned Choi Chul, a professor of shopper economics at Sookmyung Girls’s College. “There was appreciable dialogue within the earlier Nationwide Meeting on a web-based platform act, however it finally did not cross. As new platform-based enterprise fashions have emerged, regulatory frameworks have to be established to replicate the brand new financial surroundings formed by platform constructions.”
 

A Coupang deliveryperson strikes packages at a warehouse in Seoul on Dec. 16, 2025. [NEWS1]

 
The Coupang incident revived calls to cross the controversial On-line Platform Act, which seeks to control massive digital platforms to make sure truthful competitors and shopper safety. The laws was additionally one among President Lee Jae Myung’s marketing campaign pledges, however stalled after america singled it out as a type of digital regulation.
 
 
Monetary and knowledge leak accusations pending
 
Scrutiny from different regulators can be intensifying.  
 
The Monetary Supervisory Service (FSS) on Wednesday despatched a discover to Coupang Monetary, its monetary unit, to launch an official audit over its high-interest mortgage product following a preliminary inspection.  
 
Since December, the FSS has performed an on-site inspection of Coupang for charging excessive rates of interest on loans to sellers by leveraging its dominant market place. The corporate prices charges of as much as 18.9 % yearly on loans of as much as 50 million gained, primarily based on retailers’ gross sales efficiency on the buying platform.  
 

Harold Rogers, interim CEO of Coupang Korea, solutions lawmakers’ questions at a joint parliamentary listening to on Coupang’s private knowledge leak, unfair commerce practices and labor situations on the Nationwide Meeting in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Dec. 30, 2025. [NEWS1]

 
FSS Gov. Lee Chan-jin mentioned final month that the monetary watchdog would formally search cooperation with the U.S. Securities and Change Fee concerning key executives’ gross sales of shares value thousands and thousands of {dollars} between the corporate’s knowledge breach and its public disclosure, if potential indicators of unfair buying and selling are confirmed.
 
In December, the Nationwide Tax Service additionally launched a particular audit of Coupang, involving potential tax evasion and unfair revenue transfers to its U.S. father or mother firm. 
 
Different authorities ministries are additionally actively probing the e-commerce big by way of a job drive on Coupang’s safety breach and private knowledge leak. 
 
The Ministry of Science and ICT is specializing in the reason for the incident and Coupang’s safety flaws, whereas the Private Data Safety Fee is specializing in the size and the scope of the information leak, in addition to the potential violations of the Private Data Safety Act. 
 
The problem has reached the Ministry of Employment and Labor, which has pledged to take strict motion towards Coupang over suspected violations of labor and industrial accident legal guidelines. The ministry plans to research stories that Coupang engaged in unlawful employee dispatch and carried out applications concentrating on the dismissal of low-performing workers.
 
“Whether or not to go away Coupang needs to be left to customers to determine,” mentioned Suh Yong-gu, a professor of enterprise administration at Sookmyung Girls’s College. “Nevertheless, Coupang mustn’t overlook that various providers providing comparable comfort are persevering with to emerge and that Koreans are likely to have a powerful collectivist mindset,” which can result in stronger boycotts towards the platform. 
 
 

BY JIN MIN-JI [[email protected]]