Half a Year Since the Coupang Data Leak… 7,800-Plus Join the First Trial of the U.S. Class Action

U.S. federal court's first hearing in June
Class action worth 7.3 billion won
"Korean consumers deserve equal compensation too"

With six months having passed since the massive personal-information leak at Coupang, a class action worth 5 million dollars (about 7.3 billion won) in the United States is entering a full-fledged courtroom battle next month, beginning with the Initial Conference. Thousands of domestic and overseas victims are participating in the suit, and the movement of consumers to reclaim their rights against a platform conglomerate is expected to accelerate.

According to Daeryun Law Firm on the 26th, the initial case-management date for the class action being conducted by SJKP.LLP—Daeryun's U.S. partner law firm representing the plaintiffs—against Coupang Inc and Kim Bom-suk, chairman of Coupang Inc, will be held next month at the federal court in Brooklyn, New York. Earlier, SJKP filed the class-action complaint with the local court in February, and to date about 7,800 domestic and overseas victims have joined the suit.

At this initial date, both sides will submit a "Proposed Discovery Plan" and finalize the case's main issues and the scope of future investigation. In particular, once discovery—a powerful compulsory information-disclosure procedure unique to U.S. litigation—begins in earnest, Coupang's internal security management system and the circumstances of its incident response are expected to become key subjects of verification.

The plaintiffs' representative, SJKP, asserts Chairman Kim Bom-suk's management and supervisory responsibility, and puts forward Coupang Inc's negligence and implied breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and violation of the New York State consumer protection law as the main causes of action.

This class action is being driven by a U.S. citizen who has come forward as the lead plaintiff, and about 7,800 Korea-resident users are classified as a separate subclass exercising their rights.

In relation to this, Son Dong-hu, a foreign attorney at Daeryun who is leading the suit, explained, "Once we go through the U.S. court's 'class certification' procedure, the lead plaintiffs' damages will be commonly recognized for many others," adding, "Through this process, the total number of victims covered by the suit's effect could increase beyond the current figure."

Moreover, the 90-day cooling-off period of the investor-state dispute (ISDS) filed in January by Coupang's U.S. investors (Greenoaks and Altimeter), who claim losses from the Korean government's fact-finding investigation, recently ended, so the domestic and international legal and regulatory issues surrounding the Coupang incident are becoming complexly intertwined.

Since this is a serious matter in which the possibility of large-scale damage on the order of about 30 million people is being raised, some analyses hold that more active attention and exercise of rights are needed for substantive damage recovery and consumer-rights protection.

In relation to this, Kim Kook-il, Daeryun's representative, emphasized, "For Korean consumers to miss the chance to participate because they are unaware of the progress of the suit or the rights-relief procedure itself is, in itself, another infringement of rights," adding, "Even when participating as a subclass, under U.S. precedent, if class certification is granted through the court's fair review and a settlement or judgment is reached, one can become subject to rights relief according to the standards approved by the court, so it is necessary to accurately confirm the procedure and scope of rights."

He continued, "This suit goes beyond simple after-the-fact compensation; it has a strong public-interest character in that, through the strict procedures of the U.S. court, it draws companies to voluntarily build strong security-prevention systems," urging, "I hope more domestic victims join the suit and reclaim their rightful rights themselves."

Reporter Kim Jin-ryong (kim.jinryong@mk.co.kr)

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