[Gangnam Perspective] Diverging views on Coupang Inc.'s 'lobbying effect'

The government's investigation into Coupang Inc. is dragging on. Not only the Ministry of Science and ICT and the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC), which are in charge of information leakage issues, but also the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), the Prosecution Service, and the police are all involved. As a result, many expect it will take considerable time before the probe is wrapped up. At the stage of the Ministry of Science and ICT’s investigation, the focus was on personal data leaks. Now, however, labor issues, governance, and fair trade concerns have all become entangled, making it hard to predict how the final outcome will look.
The investigation is necessary, but the government should seek ways to move the timetable forward as much as possible. Coupang Inc. is a private company, yet its businesses already span distribution, logistics, payments, content, and fintech, so the impact of the findings could be significant. Responsibility and consequences for incidents such as data breaches must be clearly established, but from a policy standpoint this is also a moment when the government needs to think through a range of broader implications.
There is also concern that prolonged investigations could cause public opinion to veer off in the wrong direction. This is because criticism of Coupang Inc.’s lobbying activities in the United States has been mounting just as U.S. trade pressure on South Korea is intensifying. Two news items on the U.S. government’s response, reported on the 27th, fueled the debate. The first was about U.S. pressure to raise tariffs. On the 26th (local time), U.S. President Donald Trump posted on his social media account, "Because the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea has not ratified the historic trade agreement with the United States, we are raising South Korea's tariffs on automobiles and all other reciprocal tariff items from 15% to 25%." This has been interpreted as a political move aimed at claiming an early victory, even though the National Assembly had no intention of rejecting the ratification bill.
The second news item was a letter reportedly received by Bae Kyung-hoon, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT. On the 13th, James R. Heller, Chargé d'Affaires ad interim of the United States to the Republic of Korea, sent a letter to Bae urging implementation of the Korea-U.S. joint fact sheet (Joint Fact Sheet). The idea was to advance the agreements reached on security and trade between the presidents of South Korea and the United States on November 13 last year. The Joint Fact Sheet states that U.S. companies must not face discrimination in South Korea, particularly in areas such as network usage fees, online platform regulation, and map services.
Some observers lumped these two news items, which broke on the same day, together and used them as material to argue for a so-called "Coupang lobbying effect." The claim that routine trade issues have been turned into tools to pressure the South Korean government through lobbying by a specific company should not be accepted uncritically. Political imagination is free, but policy decisions only have meaning when they rest on cool-headed evidence. Regarding the letter received by Deputy Prime Minister Bae in particular, Cheong Wa Dae also cautioned against overinterpretation, saying it was "about not discriminating against U.S. companies on digital issues."
Perceptions of lobbying itself also need to change. In the United States, lobbying is a legal activity that allows companies to approach policymakers and working-level officials to explain their positions. It is different from illicit practices such as offering bribes.
Leading South Korean conglomerates are also deeply engaged in lobbying in the United States. They, too, spend several million dollars a year. Around 2025, when tariff pressure from the Trump administration began in earnest, major South Korean manufacturers stepped up their lobbying efforts in the U.S. Coupang Inc. spent about 2.27 million dollars on lobbying in the United States last year. In fact, that was roughly a 30% decrease compared with 2024. It is worth noting that little attention has been paid to the fact that other companies spent far more on lobbying. Even so, Coupang Inc.’s lobbying has been singled out and portrayed as a political escape route to get out from under the data-leak crisis, drawing public criticism.
The more the so-called lobbying-effect theory is inflated, the greater the risk that the integrity of the government’s eventual findings will be undermined. Even when presented with the same investigation results, some may once again invoke a "Coupang lobbying effect" and raise suspicions. The government should examine contentious issues such as U.S. trade pressure and calls to implement the Joint Fact Sheet as they are, in a calm and objective manner. Only then will the credibility of the forthcoming conclusions on Coupang Inc. be protected.
ksh@fnnews.com Reporter