Class action lawsuit filed against Coupang's U.S. headquarters... “Punitive damages lawsuit”

Victims of personal information leaks are also pursuing a class action lawsuit against Coupang's headquarters in the United States. A law firm is taking the lead in gathering victims, and if the U.S. court recognizes punitive damages, Coupang will have to pay a huge amount of compensation.

Correspondent Lee Han-seok reports from Washington for the first news today (9th).



The U.S. branch of a Korean law firm decided to file a class action lawsuit against Coupang Inc, the U.S. headquarters of Coupang, in a U.S. court.

Coupang I&C is a company in which founder and chairman Kim Beom-seok holds 74% of the voting rights and owns all shares of Coupang Korea Corporation.

This is a lawsuit for damages against the U.S. headquarters, separate from the lawsuit filed in Korea.

The law firm explained that the United States is an inherently differentiated lawsuit that deals with governance failures and violations of disclosure obligations of listed companies.

[Kook-il Kim / CEO of Daeryun Law Firm: If the U.S. headquarters has substantial access to the system data of the Korean subsidiary, the U.S. court can force the submission of relevant data regardless of where the server is located.]

He explained that it is difficult to reveal the role of Coupang's headquarters in a civil lawsuit in Korea, and that the issue of the trial will be what role the headquarters played in the relationship between the U.S. headquarters and the Korean corporation.

Based on past precedents, they announced that they would seek punitive damages against companies with gross negligence and hold Coupang accountable for violating its governance and risk management obligations.

In the United States, if a company's gross negligence is proven, the amount of compensation can grow to astronomical levels.

T-Mobile, one of America's top three mobile carriers, had the personal information of about 76 million customers leaked in 2021, resulting in a class action lawsuit, and spent $350 million and 510 billion won in settlements with consumers.

The law firm said that about 200 people who have participated in the Korean lawsuit so far have also participated in the U.S. lawsuit, and that they will file a lawsuit in court within this year as soon as more litigants are added.

(Video reporting: Oh Jeong-sik, Lee Hee-hoon, Video editing: Choi Hye-ran)

Reporter Lee Han-seok lucaside@sbs.co.kr

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