The Consumer Dispute Mediation Committee is launching group dispute mediation proceedings against Coupang (CPNG, NYSE), the e-commerce giant from which 33.7 million account records were leaked.
The committee announced Monday that it made the decision the previous day. Fifty consumers had filed for group dispute mediation in December last year, demanding compensation for damages caused by the personal data breach.
In February, the committee suspended deliberations on initiating the group mediation proceedings, accepting the applicants' request that additional fact-finding was needed as multiple agencies were investigating the scope and details of Coupang's data breach. However, Coupang subsequently reported to the Personal Information Protection Commission that delivery address data from an additional 165,000 accounts had been leaked beyond the original 33.7 million accounts. The committee resumed deliberations after a joint public-private investigation team led by the Ministry of Science and ICT (MSIT) released findings confirming that approximately 33.67 million user records — including names and email addresses — had been leaked through Coupang's "My Information Edit Page."
The committee also announced it would simultaneously launch group dispute mediation against Lotte Rental.
Lotte Rental operated a consumer rental platform called "Myomi" from August 2017 to August 2023, selling bundled products that combined "goods" such as electronics with "services" such as funeral aid plans and travel packages.
Between December 2020 and November 2022, consumers purchased these bundled products after being told they would receive "free electronics as gifts" and that there would be "no rental fees." In reality, the structure required consumers to pay in installments an amount far exceeding the electronics' market price at the time — roughly three times the value — without their knowledge. A total of 221 consumers filed for group dispute mediation in February this year, demanding compensation for the resulting damages.
The committee determined that both cases met the requirements for initiating group dispute mediation proceedings: at least 50 affected consumers and key issues that are substantively and legally consistent across claimants. For the Coupang case, the committee cited the confirmed mass leak of user data. For the Lotte Rental case, it considered the unique nature of the bundled products, the identical or similar methods of contract execution, and concerns over expanding damages due to the closure of related funeral service companies.
The committee will publicly announce the initiation of group dispute proceedings for both Coupang and Lotte Rental through the Korea Consumer Agency website and daily newspapers by May 4. If the businesses in each case accept the mediation decisions, the committee plans to require them to submit compensation plans so that consumers who did not participate in the mediation can also receive compensation collectively. Mediation decisions following the public announcement are expected to be concluded within the period prescribed by the Framework Act on Consumers.
