SK Telecom has decided not to accept a mediation plan proposed by the Personal Information Protection Commission's dispute mediation committee that would have the company compensate personal information leak victims 300,000 won per person. Considering that 3,998 people (3,267 in three group disputes and 731 individual applicants) have applied for dispute mediation against SK Telecom since April, the total compensation aggregates to about 1.2 billion won.
According to the industry on the 20th, SK Telecom submitted a written opinion rejecting the mediation plan to the dispute mediation committee at about 5:40 p.m. that day.
An SK Telecom official said, "We respect the committee's decision, but we decided not to accept the mediation plan because the company's preemptive compensation and recurrence-prevention measures taken after the incident were not sufficiently reflected in the plan," and added, "We will continue measures to restore customer trust and prevent additional damage."
On the 4th of this month, the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee decided in a case filed against SK Telecom, which leaked personal information of about 23 million subscribers, that SK Telecom should pay 300,000 won in damages to each applicant. It also recommended that SK Telecom strengthen personal information protection measures.
At the time, the dispute mediation committee said, "SKT violated the protective measures obligation under the Personal Information Protection Act and leaked 25 types of personal information, including subscribers' mobile phone numbers, subscriber identity numbers (USIM), and USIM authentication keys," and explained, "We recognized mental damages for anxiety over mobile phone cloning due to misuse of leaked information and for confusion and inconvenience experienced during the USIM replacement process, and determined the damages accordingly."
SK Telecom received the written decision on the 5th and conducted a legal review, but ultimately decided to reject the mediation. The applicants in this mediation account for only 0.02% of all victims. If SK Telecom accepts the mediation plan and other customers apply for mediation under the same conditions, SK Telecom's compensation could reach 7 trillion won.
If mediation by the dispute mediation committee is established, it has the same effect as a judicial settlement and the case is concluded. But if either side refuses mediation, mediation fails and the matter typically moves to litigation.