Legislation aimed at toughening penalties on companies involved in major personal data breaches cleared its first hurdle in the National Assembly, following a data breach at e-commerce giant Coupang.

The first legislative subcommittee of the National Policy Committee passed a proposed amendment to the Personal Information Protection Act on Monday that would raise the upper limit on fines for repeated or serious personal data breaches from the current three percent of company revenue to as much as ten percent.

Coupang revealed in November that the personal data of roughly 33-point-seven million users had been exposed, including names, email addresses, phone numbers and home addresses. 

The amendment was proposed by ruling Democratic Party Rep. Park Beom-kye and main opposition People Power Party Rep. Kim Sang-hoon.

They said the amendment aims to address the limitations of the current enforcement system, noting that public trust in data protection has been eroding amid recent personal data leaks at major companies. 

The bill will next be reviewed by the full National Policy Committee, then by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, before being brought to a plenary session of the National Assembly for final approval.