[비즈한국] A decision has been issued requiring SK Telecom017670, which suffered a massive leak of user personal information due to a hacking incident last April, to pay benefits equivalent to 100,000 won to each victim.
The Consumer Dispute Mediation Committee of the Korea Consumer Agency (chaired by Han Yong-ho) held a collective dispute mediation meeting on December 18 and decided that SK Telecom must provide each victim with a 50,000 won discount on telecommunications fees and 50,000 T-Plus points.
The committee acknowledged that the hacking incident led to a data breach, causing harm to SK Telecom users. However, as multiple damages lawsuits have already been filed regarding this case, the committee reserved specific judgments on violations of the Personal Information Protection Act, the Information and Communications Network Act, and breach of contractual obligations.
Regarding the mediation amount and method, the committee stated that it took into account that compensation for large-scale data breaches typically amounts to 100,000 won per person, the need to compensate all affected consumers, and measures to increase the likelihood of the mediation proposal being accepted. If SK Telecom accepts the proposal, it would apply to all 23 million users, with the total scale of compensation expected to reach 2.3 trillion won.
The mediation decision will soon be notified to both the applicants and SK Telecom. Both parties must notify the committee of their acceptance within 15 days of receiving the decision. Failure to provide a separate response will be considered as acceptance, which will have the same legal effect as a settlement in court.
On April 19, a hacker used malicious code to leak the unique identification numbers of USIM cards belonging to approximately 23.24 million SK Telecom users. This led to confusion for some time, with users having to replace their USIM cards.
In response, 58 consumers filed for collective dispute mediation with the Korea Consumer Agency on May 9, demanding compensation and measures to prevent recurrence. The committee held three dispute mediation meetings starting September 1 to discuss the proposal.
Previously, in August, the Personal Information Protection Commission imposed a record-breaking fine of 34.791 billion won and a penalty of 9.6 million won on SK Telecom. In November, the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee issued a proposal for SK Telecom to compensate applicants 300,000 won each. However, SK Telecom rejected this, claiming it had already made proactive compensation efforts. Currently, over 10 law firms are preparing or conducting class-action lawsuits against SK Telecom, with approximately 200,000 victims reportedly participating.