Google·Meta vs Gaebo Committee: Who Wins the 100 Billion KRW Fine Lawsuit?

Published 09 Apr.2024 17:05(KST)

Newly Established International Legal Affairs Prosecutors
Facing Kim & Chang from Google and Meta

Attention on Whether Korean Courts Will Deliver a 'Heavy Blow' to Big Tech's Personal Data Collection Practices

Google and Meta's administrative lawsuits challenging the 100 billion won-level fines imposed by the Personal Information Protection Commission (Chairman Ko Hak-su·PIPC) are spreading into proxy battles involving the Ministry of Justice and major law firms.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In this case, which involved the largest fines ever imposed for violations of personal information protection regulations, prosecutors from the Ministry of Justice's newly established International Legal Affairs Bureau are facing off against Kim & Chang law firm representing Google and Meta, marking their 'debut' in litigation. Industry attention is focused on how Korean courts will rule on the big tech companies' practice of collecting behavioral information without obtaining consent from users, the data subjects.

Ministry of Justice, Haegwang, Minhu, Choi Seon vs. Kim & Chang

According to the legal community on the 5th, the lawsuits filed by Google and Meta against the PIPC seeking cancellation of corrective orders and other dispositions have held three hearings since the start of oral arguments in September last year (2023GuHap55191, 2023GuHap54259). On the PIPC side, elite prosecutors from the Ministry of Justice's International Legal Affairs Bureau's International Legal Support Division have taken charge of the litigation.

Deputy Prosecutor Shin Dong-hwan (45, Judicial Research and Training Institute Class 36), who has experience working in the World Bank's anti-corruption investigation team, and Prosecutor Lee Seong-jik (32, 2nd Bar Exam), who graduated from a U.S. law school (LL.M) and obtained a New York State Bar license, are personally appearing in court to represent the PIPC. This case is the first in which prosecutors from the newly established International Legal Affairs Bureau have taken on government-side representation.

Since this lawsuit involves the Korean government defending the people's 'personal information sovereignty' against global tech giants, the plan is to mobilize all legal capabilities. The International Legal Affairs Bureau, launched in August last year under former Minister of Justice Han Dong-hoon, focuses on strengthening government responses in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and international litigation. Law firms have also joined to support the PIPC.

Haegwang Law Firm, led by former high court judges Choi Chang-young (66, Class 24) and Lim Seong-geun (60, Class 17), the intellectual property boutique firm Minhu Law, and Choi Seon Law Firm, formed by former Kim & Chang lawyers, have joined the PIPC's legal team. Kim & Chang, representing Google and Meta, have deployed veteran international litigation lawyers with judicial backgrounds.

Attorney Lim Si-gyu (64, Judicial Research and Training Institute Class 15), former head of the Judicial Support Office at the Court Administration Office, and attorney Kim Dong-guk (53, Class 28), a former presiding judge, are acting as Google’s legal representatives. On Meta’s side, attorney Choi Cheol-hwan (61, Class 23), former presiding judge at Suwon District Court and legal secretary at the Presidential Secretariat’s Civil Affairs Office, and attorney Kim Se-yeon (56, Class 23), the first Korean woman appointed as a member of the ICC International Court of Arbitration, are serving as counsel. A verdict is expected as early as this year.

‘Information Collection Without Consent’ Severely Punished Overseas

In September 2022, the PIPC ordered Google and Meta to correct their violations of the Personal Information Protection Act, citing their collection of behavioral information (online activity data that can identify users' interests and tendencies) without user consent and use of such data for online personalized advertising. The PIPC imposed fines of 69.2 billion won on Google and 30.8 billion won on Meta.

This was the first sanction imposed by the Korean government regarding the collection and use of behavioral information for online personalized advertising platforms. It was the largest fine ever for violations of personal information protection regulations. In response, Google and Meta filed lawsuits in February last year, claiming the PIPC’s orders were unjust.

The PIPC maintains that the sanctions were lawful because they corrected the platforms’ unauthorized collection and use of personal information without users’ knowledge under the pretext of providing free services. Conversely, Google and Meta argue that consent for behavioral information collection should be obtained by the website or application service providers, not the platform operators.

Overseas, there is a trend of imposing strict penalties on big tech companies for collecting user behavioral information and using it for personalized advertising. France’s National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) fined Google 65 billion won in February 2020 for violating transparency requirements related to personalized advertising and failing to obtain explicit user consent. In June of the same year, France’s highest administrative court upheld the CNIL’s decision.

On June 2020, Germany’s Federal Court of Justice ruled that Facebook (Meta) violated competition law by restricting user choice to provide personalized advertising, describing it as an exploitative practice.