Small Business Community: "Preparing Collective Lawsuit if Additional Damages Arise from Coupang Incident"

"Concerns Over Sales Losses and Leakage of Business Records"

The small business community has urged the immediate establishment of effective support measures for small business owners on the Coupang platform who have suffered damages due to the recent Coupang personal information leak incident.

On December 4, the Korea Federation of Micro Enterprises issued an official statement expressing "serious concerns about the negative impact this incident could have on the entire small business ecosystem."

The Federation stated, "According to media reports, as of 2023, there are 230,000 small business owners on the Coupang platform, accounting for three-quarters of all Coupang sellers, with transaction volume reaching approximately 12 trillion won." It further explained, "Last year, Coupang's sales exceeded 40 trillion won, of which 30% was generated by small businesses." The Federation added, "While Coupang has served as a breakthrough sales channel for small businesses, there are now serious concerns about significant secondary damages to these sellers due to the personal information leak incident."

The Federation continued, "Coupang claims that the database system managing seller data is separate from the personal customer database system, and thus this incident is unrelated to sellers. However, if the leaked personal information is misused, there is a high possibility that customer information belonging to small businesses could also be accessed, raising major concerns about the potential leakage of sales records." The Federation emphasized, "Coupang must immediately establish concrete and effective support measures to minimize sales losses and additional damages for small business owners on its platform."

Additionally, the Federation stressed, "If hacking damages related to small business sales records occur as a result of this incident, we will take the lead in organizing a collective lawsuit encompassing all small business owners to ensure compensation for damages and the protection of their rights and interests."

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