Supreme Court Rules "Interpark's Fine for Customer Personal Data Leak is Justified"... Civil Lawsuits by Victims Expected to Follow

[Photo by Supreme Court]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The Supreme Court has ruled that the tens of billions of won in fines imposed by the Korea Communications Commission on Interpark, which leaked personal information of over 10 million subscribers, are justified.

As the court ultimately recognized Interpark's negligence in the lawsuit challenging the fine imposition, civil lawsuits from victims whose personal information was leaked are expected to follow.

According to the court on the 18th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Kim Seon-su) recently dismissed Interpark's appeal in the corrective order cancellation lawsuit against the Korea Communications Commission without a trial.

A dismissal without trial means rejecting a case without substantive examination when there are no special reasons such as legal violations.

In May 2016, Interpark's internal system was hacked, resulting in the external leakage of approximately 25.4 million pieces of personal information belonging to about 10.3 million subscribers.

At that time, major personal information such as IDs, passwords, names, gender, and phone numbers were leaked externally, and the police even pointed to North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau as the force behind the incident.

Accordingly, the Korea Communications Commission imposed a fine of 4.48 billion won and a penalty of 25 million won on Interpark, and Interpark filed a lawsuit disputing these measures.

In the first and second trials, the court ruled against Interpark, recognizing its negligence in managing personal information, such as failing to log out even after completing work. The Supreme Court also upheld this judgment as correct.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.