A South Korean court on Thursday shot down Coupang's request for a stay of execution for the 423.58 billion won ($315.72 million) penalty surcharge imposed for a massive data breach last year.
The Seoul Administrative Court partially accepted the e-commerce giant's request to suspend measures levied by the Personal Information Protection Commission: the penalty and orders to implement corrective measures regarding the protection of customer information.
The court granted a 30-day suspension of the corrective measures, accepting Coupang's claim that it may cause irreparable damage to the company. It said a temporary suspension would not be severely detrimental to the public interest.
But the court dismissed the necessity to suspend the execution of the penalty surcharge, saying damages are on a level that can be restored.
Coupang in June was slapped with the record-setting penalty surcharge for a data breach involving more than 33.7 million customers. The authorities also levied 201.16 billion won for the unauthorized collection of online user activities.
The company has filed a separate administrative lawsuit, requesting nullification of the punitive actions imposed by the PIPC. The date for the first hearing of that trial has not yet been set.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
