Coupang could face fines totaling hundreds of billions of won after a recent large-scale data breach at the e-commerce giant exposed the account information of 34 million customers, despite investing tens of billions of won annually in data security measures.

The breach at Coupang has put other e-commerce companies with similar distribution structures on alert.

The Personal Information Protection Act, revised in 2023, allows for fines of up to three percent of a company's total sales if violations are found.

SK Telecom was fined about 134-point-eight billion won, or roughly 91-point-six million U.S. dollars, after suffering a major data breach in April.

Coupang’s leak included names, e-mails, phone numbers and delivery addresses, as well as some order details, leading analysts to believe the damage will be much greater than that of a mobile carrier data leak.

In particular, delivery destination information is directly related to consumers’ daily lives, and could be abused for phishing and other scams.

Gmarket, another major online shopping site, said on Monday that it had conducted its own emergency security inspection over the weekend and is discussing follow-up inspection plans, according to Yonhap News.

SSG.com reported that it has conducted regular, frequent inspections since last year and tightened internal controls amid a rise in cybersecurity incidents affecting carriers and financial firms.