A U.S. House report alleging that the Korean government is treating U.S. corporations, including Coupang, in a discriminatory manner was released on the 1st (local time).
The House Judiciary Committee on this day published on its website a 35-page report titled "Blocked competition: South Korea's discriminatory assault on American-owned businesses."
Citing testimony and documents obtained by the committee, the report claimed, "South Korea has targeted American-owned corporations for decades, and the discriminatory treatment has intensified recently." It added, "Coercive investigative tactics and excessive regulation, as well as massive fines and penalty surcharges that punish U.S. corporations and make it difficult to compete with Korean corporations, are representative examples."
It also said the Korea Fair Trade Commission shows a particularly aggressive posture toward U.S. corporations, introducing complaints from U.S. corporations that investigations begin without sufficient grounds or that early-morning raids are conducted, indicating a lack of procedural fairness.
Arguing that the Korean government is using digital-related laws and regulations to undermine the competitiveness of U.S. corporations, the report assessed that "South Korea's discriminatory treatment of U.S. corporations is a direct violation of recently concluded U.S.-Korea trade agreements."
The report devoted more than half its length to the Coupang case. Defining Coupang's personal data leak as "unauthorized access to the data system by a disgruntled former employee," it claimed that "the Korean government used this as a pretext to mount a full-scale offensive."
Claims by Harold Rogers, acting head of Coupang's Korea unit, were also included. Rogers said the Korean government tried to steer Coupang's customers to competitors.
The process by which Coupang recovered the hacking suspect's laptop in China was also defined as "an operation led by the National Intelligence Service," and the report detailed Coupang's assertion that the action followed the NIS's instructions. It attached, in English translation, the cooperation letter that Coupang said it received from the NIS.
It also included content that a senior official in the presidential office instructed Coupang to cooperate closely with the NIS to retrieve and hand over the suspect's electronic devices, and, after receiving a report that the devices had been secured in Shanghai, China, said, "I will report to President Lee Jae-myung," and confirmed that the actual report was made the next day, Dec. 16, 2025.
On this basis, the report argued that the highest levels of the Korean government, including President Lee, were aware that Coupang acted under the NIS's instructions.
It went on to claim that, due to the Korean government's targeted measures, Coupang's market capitalization fell by more than 40%, harming U.S. investors, and that U.S. corporations and producers who sell products worth billions of dollars annually through Coupang also suffered losses.
It also cited an analysis that due to South Korea's discriminatory practices and hostile regulations, the United States could suffer $525 billion in economic losses and South Korea $469 billion, and that U.S. households could lose an average of $3,800 over the next 10 years.