South Korea Hits Coupang With Record $400M+ in Data Breach Fines

Coupang fined over $400M for a data breach affecting 37.5M users in South Korea, highlighting poor data management and unauthorized data collection.

By Content Team

Jun 12, 2026

ON THIS PAGE

South Korea has hit e-commerce giant Coupang with fines totalling more than $400 million over a 2025 data breach that exposed personal information belonging to roughly 37.5 million users — more than half the country's population. Seoul's Personal Information Protection Commission issued 423.6bn won over the breach itself, plus a further 201bn won for collecting data without user consent, after finding the company failed to properly manage authentication signing keys and access controls.

Exposed data included names, contact and delivery details, and order histories. Coupang was alerted to a breach involving 4,500 accounts in November 2025 and reported it immediately; its own later checks put the figure at nearly 34 million South Korean accounts, and it believes the intrusion began as early as June 2025 through a server based abroad.

CEO Park Dae-jun resigned after the incident, with chief administrative officer Harold Rogers stepping in as interim. Coupang says its explanations "were not sufficiently reflected" in the ruling and plans to fight it in court.

Source: BBC News

Have questions about protecting your software?

Our escrow experts are standing by to help.

Book a free demo

Want more insights like this?