Overview
- Coupang was fined 2.19 billion won (about $1.5 million) after the KFTC found it pressured suppliers to cut prices and shoulder fees to meet margin targets, with corrective orders issued to reform those practices.
- The regulator detailed delayed payments across 508,752 direct‑purchase transactions with 25,715 vendors totaling roughly 281 billion won, plus unpaid statutory late interest of about 853 million won and unreturned promotional goods worth around 537 million won.
- A government-led inspection found roughly 33.6–34 million user accounts were exposed in a November breach, which the Science Ministry attributed to management failure rather than a sophisticated cyberattack.
- Coupang reported fourth-quarter operating profit fell 97% to 11.5 billion won and it swung to a 37.7 billion won net loss, saying the data incident depressed revenue growth, active customers and WOW membership.
- Competitive pressure is building as the government plans to ease late-night restrictions on hypermarkets and rivals expand fast-delivery services, with Reuters reporting Coupang shares down about 34% since the breach disclosure.