[Editorial] Korean authorities should not bow to intimidation from Coupang’s US buyers

A coalition of civil society teams holds a press convention in Gwanghwamun Sq. on Jan. 23, 2026, to sentence interference by US political and monetary circles in investigations of Coupang. (Yonhap)

On Thursday, two US funding companies filed a criticism with the US Commerce Consultant, alleging that the Korean authorities is subjecting the e-commerce large Coupang to unreasonable and discriminatory remedy. 

These companies requested that the USTR impose “acceptable” commerce cures, equivalent to imposing tariffs on Korean items. As well as, they notified the Korean authorities of their intent to convey arbitration claims in opposition to it, arguing that the federal government’s response to the Coupang breach violates the Korea-US Free Commerce Settlement. 

Notably, this discover of intent made baseless claims that President Lee Jae Myung and the Democratic Social gathering “preserve shut ties” with Chinese language corporations. The Korean authorities should not permit itself to be intimidated whereas responding to any potential future disputes or worldwide lawsuits with the US authorities, and should proceed conducting a resolute investigation into Coupang’s alleged unlawful actions.

Final week, Greenoaks Capital Companions and Altimeter Capital Administration, funding companies which disclosed that they maintain over US$1.5 billion in Coupang shares, said of their discover of intent that the Korean authorities is “utilizing the pretext of a restricted information breach [. . .] to try to get rid of a profitable US firm’s means to compete with the Korean and Chinese language corporations that the Authorities favors.” They argued that the USTR ought to impose commerce treatment actions beneath Part 301 of the Commerce Act of 1974, equivalent to imposing tariffs on Korean items imported into the US or proscribing Korean providers throughout the US.

On this discover addressed to President Lee Jae Myung and the Korean Ministry of Justice, the companies parroted Coupang’s declare that the precise variety of accounts whose information was leaked within the on-line retail platform’s private data breach solely amounted to three,000, not 33 million. This doc argues that the Korean authorities deliberately exaggerated the dimensions of the harm and used this as a pretext to strain Coupang by means of a whole-of-government response involving businesses irrelevant to the incident, such because the Honest Commerce Fee, Monetary Supervisory Service, Ministry of Employment and Labor, and Nationwide Tax Service. They said that if the Korean authorities doesn’t stop its “longstanding marketing campaign of discrimination” in opposition to Coupang, they are going to be pressured to hunt billions of {dollars} in damages.

Nonetheless, the precise scale of harm from the info leak is at the moment beneath investigation by the Korean authorities, and the three,000 determine is just what Coupang has claimed. Whereas it’s true that a number of ministries are investigating the corporate, it is a professional response to the varied allegations raised in opposition to Coupang, together with violations of labor legal guidelines by way of the usage of unlawful subcontracting and blacklisting of staff, and violations of truthful commerce legal guidelines equivalent to unfair inner transactions and improper use of vendor information.

Furthermore, on this discover of intent, the claimants assert that the Korean authorities “started weaponizing the executive energy of the state, and even performing exterior its sovereign capability, to disrupt Coupang’s operations” when Coupang started “taking market share[s] from huge Chinese language conglomerates working in Korea that preserve shut ties with [. . .] the Democratic Social gathering of Korea [. . .] and President Lee.” 

This declare just isn’t supported by any concrete proof in any way. The discover even resorted to accusing Lee and the Democratic Social gathering of getting an “anti-US, pro-China stance.” It is a malicious tactic aimed toward upsetting the US authorities and Congress, that are hostile towards China, to create a positive state of affairs for the e-commerce large.

It stays to be seen whether or not the US authorities will reply to this petition or if the companies in query will provoke investor-state dispute settlement proceedings. Korea’s Ministry of Justice and commerce authorities should totally put together for all doable eventualities. Moreover, the varied businesses at the moment investigating Coupang’s alleged unlawful conduct should strictly base their ongoing investigations, penalties, and different procedures on current legal guidelines to make sure they don’t inadvertently present grounds for additional retaliation.

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