[Exclusive] US $5 million class action lawsuit over ‘Coupang personal information leak’, first date in June… “Submission of discovery plan”

Capable of collecting external undisclosed data
Widely requested, including email and electronic materials
The ‘group certification procedure’ applied to multiple people is also an issue.

The first date of the US class action lawsuit for damages worth $5 million (approximately KRW 7.3 billion) filed by users in connection with the 'Coupang personal information leak' incident will begin in June at the Brooklyn Federal Court in New York. As the discovery process begins to force the wide disclosure of the other party's information before a full-scale trial, attention is being paid to whether Coupang's internal response process and personal information status will be disclosed in court. At the initial conference, the main issues of the case, the scope of evidence discovery, and the future litigation schedule are expected to be discussed based on the 'Proposed Discovery Plan' submitted by the plaintiff and defendant.

The class action lawsuit (punitive damages) filed by SJKP, a U.S. partner law firm of Daeryun Law Firm, against Coupang Inc and Coupang Inc Chairman Kim Beom-seok in February is scheduled for a full hearing in the U.S. court.

Both sides plan to submit a 'joint discovery plan' to the court in June, and the first trial will be held at the Brooklyn Federal Court presided over by Judge Marcia M. Henry. The joint discovery plan is a document that organizes and discusses in advance which materials will be disclosed and investigated in the future, to what scope and in what manner, and is prepared based on Article 26 of the U.S. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP). This is not a simple procedure, but a full-fledged legal verification process for Coupang's internal data and management decision-making process.

In particular, the first date is not simply a time to discuss formal procedures, but a procedure for the court to quickly organize the issues and future schedule of the case. U.S. federal litigation differs from Korean civil litigation in that the court is actively involved in case management from the beginning, and information disclosure procedures between the parties are also extensive.

This lawsuit seeks responsibility for the Coupang personal information leak that occurred in November 2025, and the compensation claim is worth $5 million. The plaintiff claims that Chairman Kim did not fulfill his obligation to protect customer information as the final decision-maker of security policy and was insufficient in establishing and managing the security system. Additionally, it is believed that Coupang Inc was negligent in violating its personal information protection obligations and that this constitutes a violation of implied contract and unjust enrichment. Violation of New York State's anti-deceptive business practices law was also cited as a major cause of claim.

As for the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, U.S. citizens Mr. Lee and Mr. Park served as the lead plaintiffs, and over 7,800 domestic Coupang users were set up as a separate group. Dong-hoo Son, an American lawyer at Daeryun Law Firm, said, “A class action lawsuit is structured in that a representative plaintiff files a lawsuit on behalf of all who have suffered similar damages,” and added, “In reality, many more victims are included in the scope of the lawsuit’s effectiveness.”

He continued, "The total number of people ultimately included in the scope of validity of the lawsuit will be officially confirmed through the court's group certification process in the future, and the possibility that the number of victims will further increase in the process cannot be ruled out."

In addition, Attorney Son believes that the class certification process, which determines whether the damages suffered by representative plaintiffs can be commonly applied to multiple victims, will be an important procedural gateway in the future trial process. Attorney Son explains that from now on, the main issues will likely be the details of the defendant's specific actions, whether and how much actual damage occurred, and the possibility of Chairman Kim's individual liability being acknowledged.

Meanwhile, Coupang's U.S. investors, including Greenox and Altimeterty, submitted a letter of intent to arbitrate an international investment dispute (ISDS) against the Korean government in January. They reportedly claimed that they suffered investment losses during the Korean government's fact-finding investigation into the Coupang personal information leak, and that the Korean government violated its fair and equitable treatment obligations under the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

In the ISDS procedure, the letter of intent to arbitrate is a document in which the investor notifies the state in advance of its intention to file a dispute. After submitting a letter of intent, both sides usually negotiate for 90 days, and the negotiation period, called the 'cooling period', ended on the 22nd of last month.
 

Reporter Jeong Min-hoon whitesk13@naver.com

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[Exclusive] US $5 million class action suit for ‘Coupang personal information leak’, first date in June… “Submit discovery plan” (Go here)