Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee Decides to Initiate Collective Dispute Mediation Against Facebook

[Asia Economy Reporter Eunmo Koo] The Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee announced on the 8th that it has reviewed the case of “claims for damages against Facebook for providing member information to third parties without consent” and decided to initiate a collective dispute mediation procedure.

This case is the first collective personal information dispute mediation case filed since the launch of the Personal Information Protection Commission last August. On April 16, 89 Facebook members (represented by the law firm Jihyang) applied to the Dispute Mediation Committee for collective dispute mediation against Facebook.

They claimed that Facebook violated personal information protection laws by providing personal information of “Facebook members’ friends” to third parties without consent, and demanded that Facebook ▲ pay damages and ▲ disclose who the third parties receiving the applicants’ personal information are, as well as ▲ what types and details of the applicants’ personal information were provided.

The Dispute Mediation Committee plans to actively proceed with the collective dispute mediation process, including accepting additional party applications, fact verification, and drafting and presenting mediation proposals, over two weeks from the 12th to the 26th. Eligible additional applicants are “those who have been Facebook members from before June 2018 to the present,” and they can submit the collective dispute mediation application form and other required documents via the committee’s website or the committee’s official email, referring to the announcement posted on the website.

If all parties accept the mediation proposal presented by the Dispute Mediation Committee, the mediation will be established and will have the same effect as a court settlement under the Personal Information Protection Act and related regulations. However, if Facebook refuses to participate in the dispute mediation process or if any party does not accept the mediation proposal, the mediation will be terminated as unsuccessful.

Kim Ilhwan, Chairperson of the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee, said, “The dispute mediation system must play a minimal public role in protecting the rights of data subjects, and our committee will strive to resolve this collective dispute case amicably.”

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