US House committee accuses South Korea of discriminating against Coupang

The US House Judiciary Committee reportedly said in an interim report that South Korean authorities have continually discriminated against US-based Coupang-a campaign that escalated with repeated inquiries after a data breach at the e-commerce firm last year.

The report said that the actions were part of structural economic discrimination against the US and other foreign companies, adding that such discrimination directly violates a bilateral trade agreement.

The biggest online retailer, Coupang is based in Seattle, became the target of regulatory oversight and public ire last year following news of the breach became known.

As reported by Reuters, a former employee was able to retrieve customer data associated with as many as 33.7 million accounts. Afterwards, Coupang said that the person only stored information related to about 3,000 accounts.

In this connection, a report by the Republican-controlled committee remarked after the breach: “ South Korea escalated its attacks into a “whole government assault on Coupang.”

The report further showed that more than 10 South Korean agencies initiated dozens of unrelated investigations following the breach; consequently issuing over 4,000 document requests and conducting at least 652 interviews with Coupang employees.

This further implies that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) forced Coupang to execute a perilous salvage mission that involved sending an employee to China to retrieve devices from the former employee responsible for the breach.

The company said in a statement: “ It is committed to finding a constructive resolution so Coupang can once again serve as a bridge to strengthen the US-Korea alliance, accelerating trade and investment that benefits both countries.”

The NIS denied in December that it had overseen Coupang’s investigation, adding that it had only requested materials from the company. Furthermore,a member of South Korea’s National Assembly Intelligence Committee also said on Thursday that there had been absolutely no coercion.