- South Korea FTC fines Coupang 2.19 billion won.
- Regulator says Coupang pressured sellers on pricing, fees.
- FTC cites delayed payments totaling 281 billion won.
- Coupang plans court appeal; reports Taiwan data breach.
On Thursday, South Korea's Fair Trade Commission (FTC) fined e-commerce giant, Coupang 2.19 billion won on the grounds that the organization had unlawfully pressured sellers to lower prices and cover advertising expenses to safeguard its own profit margin.
Enacted on the same basis as the corrective orders the sanction serves as a compound to the accumulating regulatory and legal pressures that are plaguing the country as it is home to the leading online retailer. Coupang has declared it is going to appeal the decision in court.
FTC: Suppliers Bear the burden of the Margin Targets of Coupang
FTC concluded that during the period between January 2020 and October 2022, Coupang established internal gross profit margin goals and strived to keep a close focus on supplier performance. Where the vendors failed to meet expectations, the company insisted on reduced prices of supplies or accepted extra costs by vendors such as advertising fees, Commissions to Coupang Experience Group and high cost data services and threatened to suspend the orders as a leverage.
The FTC alleged that Coupang, the market leader in the online shopping sector, pressured suppliers to sacrifice to preserve its own margins. In another breach, Coupang failed to pay its 508,752 transactions involving over 25,000 vendors in 60-day timeframe ranging between October 2021 and June 2024, in certain instances up to 233 days later than the legal 60-day deadline.
Delays on total payments were approximately 281 billion won and the payments were made without any interest. The FTC fined Coupang the 850 million won in overdue interest and reported that the lawsuit is the first penalty to be observed by the rule of paying on time in April 2021.
Coupang Denies Its Guilt, Will Appeal to Court
Coupang denied the ultimate findings of FTC. The statement of the company was that price fluctuations directly led to losses incurred by the company. Never denied suppliers the right to advertise or had to suspend orders unfairly reimbursement of its losses.
It said it will also explain its stand vigorously in court. The fine is part of an accumulated 162.8 billion won in FTC penalties against Coupang since 2022 - the highest amount of South Korean conglomerates in the same timeframe, as per a parliamentary report on it cited by the Korea Herald.
Breach of Data: Mandiante Discovers 200,000 Taiwanese Accounts breached
The fine reports that Coupang is dealing with a data breach fallout in November 2025. A forensic firm hired by Mandiant together with Palo Alto Networks, the company declared on Wednesday that the unauthorised access by a former employee consisted of access to a figure of around 200,000 accounts in Taiwan.
Coupang described the event as criminal misconduct. This was committed by a former employee against Coupang and our customers. Although we do not have any control over a legal action, we have ensured that this bad actor is prosecuted to the maximum of the law, the company said. It further said that it had no highly sensitive data, as well as that no evidence to support the fact that any of the accessed customer data has ever been viewed, disclosed, or sent to any other person.
The Ministry of Science and ICT in South Korea explained the intrusion by management failure but not a complex cyberattack and has given the case to investigators. The monthly active users declined by 3.5 per cent between November and January, compared to the rise of 23 per cent of the rival Naver in the same time group.
