SEOUL – The founder of South Korea’s Coupang failed to appear before a parliamentary hearing on Dec 17 about the

massive data breach at the e-commerce giant

Coupang chief executive and chairman Bom Kim declined to attend the hearing, citing his overseas residence and commitments as head of a global company operating in more than 170 countries.

“Chairman Bom Kim’s claim that he cannot attend because he is travelling abroad and is a global CEO is, in my view, an act that truly mocks the public and delivers despair to global investors,” said lawmaker Choi Hyung-du.

“Even Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos – heads of companies larger than Coupang – did not refuse to appear before Congress hearings,” he said.

The personal data of more than 33 million Coupang customers was leaked in a breach believed to have started on June 24 through overseas servers, though the company did not learn of the problem until Nov 18.

Coupang’s shares have slumped some 17 per cent since the company revealed the leak at its South Korean unit late in November.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has since called for increased penalties for corporate negligence in data breaches. Under current South Korean law, companies that fail to implement adequate data protection measures can be fined up to 3 per cent of revenue.

That could mean a fine of more than one trillion won (S$872 million) for Coupang, which reported 38.3 trillion won in revenue in 2024.