A plan was announced to file a lawsuit in a U.S. court seeking punitive damages against Coupang's U.S. headquarters as well as its Korean entity, after a massive personal data breach erupted at the company.
On the 8th (local time), SJKP, the U.S. local law firm for Korea-based law firm Daeryun, said at a press conference that it will formally file a class-action lawsuit against Coupang Inc., the parent company of Coupang, in federal court in New York.
Kim Guk-il, managing partner at Daeryun, said, "Coupang's headquarters is registered in Delaware and is a U.S. corporations listed on the New York Stock Exchange," adding, "We will use the sharp edge of the U.S. judicial system to get to the bottom of this incident and ensure victims receive real compensation."
Coupang Inc. is the parent company that holds 100% equity in the Korea unit and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in 2021. The founder, Bom Kim, chair of the Coupang Inc. board, holds more than 70% of the voting rights, and Kim is known to be a U.S. citizen.
According to Kim, the U.S. lawsuit will proceed separately from the lawsuit currently underway in Korea. While Korea focuses on compensating consumer harm, the U.S. case will address the listed company's failure of governance and violations of disclosure obligations, Kim said.
Kim said, "The role of Coupang's headquarters is difficult to uncover through a Korean civil suit," adding, "The U.S. case will focus on what role the headquarters played in the relationship between the U.S. headquarters and the Korean entity."
He also said, "About 200 people who have joined the Korean lawsuit so far have simultaneously joined the U.S. lawsuit," adding, "The number of plaintiffs is continuing to grow." He continued, "We will try to file the case in a U.S. court within this year if possible."
Earlier, on the 29th, Coupang announced that information from about 33.7 million customer accounts had been leaked, saying that personal information such as ▲name ▲email ▲phone number ▲address ▲some order information had been exposed. In response, there has been a strong backlash in Korea, including civic groups moving to file a class-action lawsuit.