The Korea Fair Trade Commission changing Coupang's same person (total owner) from the corporation Coupang Inc. to Bom Kim, chair of Coupang Inc., as an individual drew a response from the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), which said the move was "late but a natural decision."
CCEJ said in a statement on Apr. 29 that "with this decision, at least a minimum level of control under the Fair Trade Act has become possible over such matters at Coupang as private interest appropriation, internal transactions, and transactions with related parties," adding, "it is meaningful in that it clarified legal responsibility in corporate group decision-making."
It continued, "what is important now is enforcement after the designation of the same person," and said, "the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) must make this decision a practical turning point for establishing a fair economic order through rigorous investigations and the application of regulations to Coupang."
CCEJ also argued that the guidelines for determining the same person, which took effect in Jan. 2024, should be scrapped. CCEJ said that putting off designating the same person "on grounds such as 'there is little concern about private interest appropriation because relatives do not participate in managing domestic affiliates'" undermined the original purpose of the system, adding, "since (those guidelines) were even suspected of being a 'sniper revision' for a particular corporations, they should be scrapped immediately and the operation of the system should return to being faithful to principles."
Coupang pushed back against the Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) decision and signaled an administrative lawsuit. Coupang said, "Coupang Inc. owns 100% of the Korean Coupang corporation, and the Korean Coupang also owns 100% of its subsidiaries and sub-subsidiaries under a transparent governance structure," adding, "Chair Kim and relatives do not hold equity in Korean affiliates, so there is absolutely no concern about private interest appropriation." It added, "we will faithfully explain our position through a future administrative lawsuit."