SK Telecom has filed an administrative suit arguing that the 134.8 billion won penalty surcharge imposed by the Personal Information Protection Commission over the leak of customer USIM information is unjustified.
According to legal sources, the Seoul Administrative Court on the afternoon of the 19th received a complaint from SKT seeking to cancel the disposition by the Personal Information Protection Commission. SKT was served the written resolution imposing the penalty surcharge in late Oct. last year. Under the Administrative Litigation Act, corporations can file an administrative lawsuit within 90 days from the date the disposition is served. SKT filed the complaint one day before the deadline to sue (the 20th).
Earlier, at SKT in April last year, a hack of internal systems led to the leak of USIM information of as many as 27 million customers. The Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) imposed a 134.8 billion won penalty surcharge on SKT in late Oct. last year.
The penalty surcharge must be paid within 30 days of service of the resolution, and SKT paid the penalty surcharge. If corporations deem it unjust, they can file an administrative suit after paying the penalty surcharge.
SKT is said to have judged the penalty surcharge excessive compared with similar cases. To date, the corporation that has received the largest penalty surcharge in Korea for violating the Personal Information Protection Act is Google.
Google, for using customer information for personalized ads without user consent for profit, was imposed a 69.2 billion won penalty surcharge. Meta was imposed a 30.8 billion won penalty surcharge for the same reason. Google and Meta filed administrative suits against the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), but the Seoul Administrative Court in Jan. last year ruled against the plaintiffs.
The Personal Information Protection Commission calculated the penalty surcharge based on SKT's total mobile telecommunications revenue. By contrast, when 300,000 items of personal information were leaked at LG Uplus in Jan. 2023, the related revenue was calculated based on the "service provided using the system from which personal information was leaked," and a 6.8 billion won penalty surcharge was imposed.
In another case, at Seoul Guarantee Insurance Company, it was reported that 13.2 TB (terabytes) of information was leaked in a hacking incident in July last year, but under the Credit Information Act, the maximum penalty surcharge for a personal credit information leak is 5 billion won. Compared with cases where sensitive personal credit information such as jeonse guarantees and loans was leaked, the penalty surcharge imposed for the USIM information leak may have been judged excessive.
Another reason SKT argues the penalty surcharge level is unjust is that there has been no direct or indirect damage to date from the SKT hacking incident. After the incident, SKT replaced USIMs free of charge and provided USIM protection services.