SEOUL — South Korean police will question on Friday (Jan 30) the American head of e-commerce firm Coupang Inc's local unit over a data breach that exposed the personal information of millions of customers.
Interim Chief Executive Harold Rogers pledged to co-operate with all probes into the data leak.
"Coupang has fully and will continue to fully co-operate with all of the government investigations that are now looking into us," he told reporters on his arrival at a Seoul police station.
"We will also fully co-operate with the police investigation today," he said.
A task force at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency summoned Rogers to question him on suspicion of evidence tampering while Coupang was conducting an internal investigation into the breach, the Yonhap News Agency reported.
Police and Coupang have not commented on the report.
Rogers became interim CEO after former executive Park Dae-jun resigned in December, taking responsibility for the data breach, which was disclosed in November.
His appearance before police comes amid diplomatic tension with Washington after US lawmakers and officials expressed concern over the investigation. South Korean officials said regulators were handling the case in the same way they would with any Korean company.
Coupang suffered one of South Korea's worst data breaches, with personal data of more than 33 million customers leaked in a breach believed to have begun in June. The company said it became aware of the data breach in November.
Backed by Japan's SoftBank Group, Coupang said the breach exposed customers' names, email addresses, phone numbers, shipping addresses and certain order histories, but not payment details or login credentials.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has called for tougher penalties for corporate negligence over data breaches, saying the leak at Coupang should serve as a wake-up call.
Under current law, companies that fail to implement adequate data protection measures can be fined up to three per cent of revenue — potentially more than 1 trillion won (S$878 million) for Coupang.
Coupang has faced regulatory and legal scrutiny in South Korea, including a tax audit and a legal complaint filed by South Korea's National Assembly against its founder and former executives.
Nomura recently cut its target prices for Coupang to US$22 (S$27.88) from US$30, citing increased regulatory scrutiny in South Korea.
The US-listed shares, which closed down 1.7 per cent at US$20 on Thursday, have fallen nearly 30 per cent since the company disclosed the leak in November.
Two major US investors in Coupang Inc said this month they had petitioned the US government to investigate the South Korean government and potentially impose trade remedies over what they describe as discriminatory treatment of the company.
Separately, Coupang faces a US class action lawsuit alleging it misled investors over data security practices and failed to disclose the breach in a timely way.
In late December, Coupang founder Bom Kim apologised for the leak, and the company announced compensation worth 1.69 trillion won, offering each customer a company voucher of 50,000 won.
[[nid:728679]]
