South Korea fines Coupang over $400 million

South Korean authorities have imposed a record fine of 624 billion won (over $400 million) on Coupang, the country's largest retailer. This decision follows a cyberattack last year that led to a data breach affecting over 34 million customers, reports Techcrunch.com reports .

Seoul's Personal Information Protection Commission announced the maximum penalty on Thursday. It was revealed that, as a result of a months-long data theft, a former employee obtained names, email addresses, delivery addresses, phone numbers, and order histories belonging to nearly two-thirds of the South Korean population.

Coupang, which is headquartered in the US and often described as the "Amazon of Asia," stated to BBC News that it intends to appeal the regulator's decision. This fine is one of the rare financial sanctions applied to a US-registered firm.

Korean lawmakers claim that US representatives are exerting political pressure regarding this case. Reports suggest that American politicians have attempted to link this data breach to bilateral relations between the US and South Korea. Typically, US companies are rarely held criminally or financially liable for such incidents due to legislative loopholes.