Coupang’s record privacy fine sparks proportionality debate, investment concerns

The record-high 624.68 billion won ($409 million) penalty imposed on Coupang over a massive data breach is fueling debate over regulatory proportionality, as the e-commerce giant was ordered to pay more than four times the fine levied on SK Telecom for last year's hacking incident, while matchmaking company Duo received a far lighter sanction despite a breach involving highly sensitive personal information. The penalty is also casting doubt on Coupang’s ability to maintain the aggressive investment that has driven its growth, fueling speculation that the e-commerce giant could rein in future spending. On Thursday, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) imposed a 624.68 billion won fine and a 16.8 million won administrative penalty on Coupang over its data breach, involving more than 33 million users, and related privacy violations. The regulator concluded that Coupang failed to maintain even basic security safeguards, citing lax management of an authentication signing key and inadequate access controls that allowed a former employee to forge tokens and reach pages conta