Coupang said on the 23rd that it is not involved in the move by two U.S. investment firms to petition the U.S. government, claiming the Korean government is giving Coupang discriminatory treatment.
In a statement that day, Coupang said, "The submission of a notice of intent to arbitrate under investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) by U.S. investment firms is unrelated to our position," and added, "Coupang is faithfully complying with all government investigation requests."
According to Reuters on the 22nd, Greenoaks and Altimeter, U.S. investors in Coupang, asked the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) to investigate the measures taken by the Korean government against Coupang and to review appropriate trade remedies, including a tariff.
The two investment firms also submitted a notice of intent to arbitrate under the Korea–U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) to the Korean government. A notice of intent to arbitrate is a written document sent to the other state in which a claimant expresses an intention to bring arbitration. It is not, by itself, a formal initiation of arbitration, and formal arbitration can be filed 90 days after submitting the notice of intent.
According to the Ministry of Justice, Greenoaks and Altimeter argued, "After Coupang's personal information leak incident, the National Assembly and the executive branch, among others, broadly targeted Coupang with various administrative actions such as fact-finding investigations and made threatening remarks," and said, "This violates the Korea–U.S. FTA provisions and has caused damages of several billion dollars."