- Coupang breach exposed data of 33.7 million customers, one of South Korea’s largest cyberattacks
- The company is offering $35 vouchers as compensation, usable only on Coupang services
- Lawmakers and consumer groups criticize regulation as marketing, police launch investigation
In South Korea, people’s personal information is worth about the same as a meal at a sit-down restaurant, or about $35. Or at least that’s what the latest data breach regulation suggests.
South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang has announced that it will resolve the issue of 33.7 million customers whose data it lost in a recent cyberattack. In November 2025, an anonymous threat actor broke into Coupang’s IT infrastructure and exfiltrated people’s names, emails, phone numbers, shipping addresses, and specific order information.
The attack is widely considered one of the largest in the country’s history, sparking law enforcement investigations and threats of class-action lawsuits.
A “ridiculous” idea
Today, Coupang announced a compensation deal worth 1.69 trillion won, or approximately $1.18 billion. As per the agreement, each customer will receive a 50,000 won voucher, which is equivalent to $34.6 at the time of publication. Funny enough, the vouchers can only be spent at Coupang, which means that once the margins are removed, the cost to the company will be even lower.
This further angered some lawmakers around the country. PK Press Club reports that Choi Min-hee, a lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party and chairman of the National Assembly’s Committee on Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications, said in a Facebook post that Coupang was “bundling coupons for services that no one uses.”
She also said the company was trying to turn a crisis into a business opportunity.
The Korean National Council of Consumer Organizations, a consumer advocacy group, said Coupang’s plan ridicules the victims and downplays the significance of the violation. He described the settlement as a “marketing tool” designed to generate more sales, rather than to actually compensate victims.
Less than two weeks after the crime, police sent 17 investigators to conduct a search and seizure at the company’s offices in Songpa-gu. According to local media, “these searches and seizures are an essential measure to accurately understand the case” and “to thoroughly investigate the overall facts of the case, including who leaked personal information, the route of the leak and the cause.”
Via PK Press Club
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