The Consumer Dispute Settlement Commission of the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) on the 21st announced a settlement proposal saying, "SK Telecom should pay compensation worth 100,000 won per person to victims of the USIM hacking incident." However, the compensation will be paid only if SK Telecom accepts this decision. If SK Telecom refuses, the victims will have to seek damages through civil lawsuits.
The commission said, "On the 18th, through a group dispute settlement meeting, we decided that, for the personal information leak incident, SK Telecom should provide each applicant with a 50,000-won discount on their phone bill and 50,000 T Plus Points (SK Telecom membership points)."
The commission said, "In light of the findings of the public-private joint investigation team and the Personal Information Protection Commission's disposition, it is recognized that a personal information leak caused by the SK Telecom hacking incident led to consumer harm." It added, "We also considered that the per-person compensation in past large-scale personal information leak cases was typically 100,000 won."
The commission is a dispute settlement body operated by the Korea Consumer Agency (KCA), a quasi-governmental agency under the Fair Trade Commission. Under the Framework Act on Consumers, after receiving a dispute settlement application from consumers, the commission decides on a settlement proposal internally and notifies the parties.
Parties must notify the commission within 15 days from the date they are informed whether they will accept the proposal. The proposal is not binding, so the parties are not required to accept it.
Earlier, in April, it was found that servers storing the USIM information of 23 million subscribers at SK Telecom were hacked and that their personal information was leaked. In August, the Personal Information Protection Commission imposed a record-high penalty surcharge of 134.791 billion won on SK Telecom.
Afterward, 58 consumers who suffered damage from this incident filed a group dispute settlement application with the commission in May. The commission began the group dispute settlement procedure on Sept. 1 and held three meetings through the 18th to prepare this proposal.
If SK Telecom accepts this settlement decision, the commission plans to proceed with procedures so that other victims who did not participate in the settlement process can also receive compensation. If compensation is made to all victims, the total compensation SK Telecom would need to pay is expected to reach about 2.3 trillion won.
It is uncertain whether SK Telecom will accept the commission's proposal. Earlier, SK Telecom rejected a settlement proposal by the Personal Information Protection Commission that said, "Pay 300,000 won in damages per hacking victim." That proposal is separate from the commission's proposal. It was filed with the Personal Information Protection Commission by 3,998 victims of the SK Telecom hacking incident.