An auto-financing unit of Mercedes-Benz Korea, was penalized by local authorities for failing to take sufficient measures to protect customer information, industry sources said Thursday.

The Financial Supervisory Service has issued a warning to Benz Financial Service Korea and ordered the firm to remedy the situation, they said.


Benz Financial Service Korea was found to have allowed unauthorized personnel to access personal customer information.

In addition to the warning, the watchdog called for the company to hand down penalties according to internal regulations and to improve the system to stipulate when and how customer information should be deleted from its system.

Mercedes-Benz Korea is one of the leading foreign car sellers here, but it has recently faced criticism for mismanagement and accidents.

It is currently facing a court order to pay over 50 billion won ($43.6 million) in corporate taxes -- the largest that a foreign auto brand has had to pay in audit-prompted taxes.

The German carmaker’s brand image was also hurt when several of its vehicles caught fire on the road. And last year, an angry customer smashed his problematic Mercedes-Benz vehicle with a golf club in front of a dealership, demanding a new car.

Despite these issues, Mercedes-Benz Korea posted 3.14 trillion won in sales last year, the first time that a foreign brand has seen its annual sales top the 3 trillion-won mark. Its operating profit came to 111.5 billion won.

(khnews@heraldcorp.com)