Lotte Group conveyed strong regret to Lotte Card over the large-scale "hacking incident" and urged measures to prevent a recurrence.
On the 21st, Lotte Group, regarding the recent Lotte Card hacking incident, said, "Even though Lotte Card is not an affiliate belonging to Lotte Group, damage to brand value due to customer confusion has reached a serious level."
The major shareholder of Lotte Card is MBK Partners. After Lotte switched to a holding company structure in 2017, it became impossible to hold equity in financial and insurance law affiliates, and in 2019 it sold Lotte Card to MBK Partners. However, because Lotte Card still uses the "Lotte" brand and cooperates across various areas such as retail, food, and tourism, many people perceive it as a Lotte Group affiliate, leading to damage.
In a press release that day, Lotte Group said, "Due to this hacking incident, Lotte is suffering tangible and intangible damage that is difficult to recover from," adding, "If customer attrition at Lotte Card increases, a decline in sales at Lotte business sites that have collaborative relationships will be inevitable, and above all, the drop in trust felt by customers who mistake Lotte Card for a Lotte affiliate is painful."
Lotte said that because Lotte Card also handles the issuance of cards exclusively for Lotte Group executives and employees, some employees' personal information was leaked in this incident.
Lotte Group said it strongly protested to Lotte Card over the serious damage, including brand value impairment and a decline in customer trust, and that on the 18th Lotte Card sent an official letter containing the CEO's apology.
It was reported that CEO Jo Jwa-jin of Lotte Card, in an official letter titled "CEO apology for Lotte Card cyber security incident," apologized to Lotte Group, executives and employees, and customers, and said, "As CEO, I will personally oversee this until the confusion caused by the incident comes to an end."