Coupang To Pay $1.1 Billion To Users After Data Breach

South Korean online shopping giant Coupang has announced it will pay 1.69 trillion won (about $1.17 billion) in compensation to around 34 million users affected by a major data breach revealed last month.

The company said it will offer 50,000 won worth of shopping vouchers to eligible users. These vouchers can be used across different Coupang services. Even former customers who closed their accounts after the data breach will be able to receive the vouchers.

Users can check if they are eligible for the compensation starting January 15.

Coupang’s interim CEO, Harold Rogers, said the compensation is a responsible step and promised that the company will take full responsibility for the incident. He also apologized again to customers for the trouble caused.

Earlier, Coupang founder Kim Bom also issued a public apology, saying he was deeply upset by the loss of customer trust. The data breach led to the resignation of CEO Park Dae-jun earlier this month.

Kim admitted that the company did not communicate clearly at the beginning of the incident and said his apology came later than it should have. He explained that Coupang was focused on confirming all the facts before speaking publicly but now realizes this was a mistake.

The founder also said that with help from the government, Coupang has recovered all leaked customer data and the storage devices involved. According to the company, the leaked data was limited to 3,000 customer records and was not shared or sold to anyone else.