Hee-young Kim, Chey Tae-won's partner, wins partial damages suit over false YouTube posts; court orders 20 million won in compensation

[The Financial News] Hee-young Kim, the cohabiting partner of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won and chair of the T&C Foundation, won a partial victory in a damages lawsuit against the operator of a YouTube channel that posted false claims about her.
According to the legal community on the 12th, Lee Jeong-hoon, the sole judge in Civil Division 6 at the Seoul Western District Court, ruled in favor of the plaintiff in part on Nov. 21 last month in a damages suit filed by Kim against the operator, identified as A.
The court ordered A to pay 20 million won in non-pecuniary damages, plus late-payment interest, to Kim. Kim had sought 30,001,000 won from A, but the court awarded 20 million won of that amount.
According to the ruling, A uploaded a video in August 2024 to the YouTube channel he operated, containing false information about Kim and her mother.
Kim filed a criminal complaint against A in September of that year on charges of defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. She later filed the damages suit, saying A's unlawful conduct had seriously harmed her reputation, privacy and personal rights, and caused her mental distress.
The court recognized A's liability for damages. It said, "The defendant acknowledges that all four points contained in the videos at issue are false, and that the plaintiff suffered mental distress and damage to her reputation as a result." It added, "The defendant is obligated to compensate the plaintiff for the losses caused by the unlawful act."
In determining the amount of compensation, the court considered the wide reach of online defamation and the difficulty of restoring the damage. It said, "Defamation through the internet, by its nature, spreads rapidly to an unspecified number of people," and "it can serve as a basis for additional unlawful acts by influencing other internet post or video creators."
The court also noted that even if the defendant were to face criminal punishment or civil damages, it would be unlikely to change the perception that ordinary internet users or YouTube viewers formed of the plaintiff based on the false statements.
The court also took into account that A appeared to have increased the channel's subscribers and views, and earned revenue from YouTube activity. According to the ruling, A's channel had 60,000 subscribers, and the videos posted in August 2024 drew 450,000 and 30,000 views, respectively.
However, the court also considered that A deleted the videos and shut down the channel, and that some of the content mentioned in the videos had been circulating as rumors on online communities for years.
425_sama@fnnews.com Choi Seung-han Reporter