 |
(Photo = Yonhap news) |
[Alpha Biz= Reporter Kim Young-taek, Lee Hyung-jin] Coupang spent tens of billion won as a contingent fee as the KFTC was unable to designate Coupang Chairman Kim as the same person of the company.
An official familiar with Coupang's internal affairs said, "Coupang Chairman Kim Bom-seok hired one of the top law firms in Korea to avoid the KFTC’s designation of the same person. When the law firm successfully executed the task, Coupang paid twenty billion won as a contingent fee."
Chairman Kim has not been designated as the same person because of the foreign head of a Korean business group controversy and the lack of relevant regulations since 2021.
Last year, Coupang hired one of the best Korean law firms to avoid the KFTC’s designation of Chairman Kim as the same person. As a result, Coupang corporation has been designated as the same person of the company and retained the status of ‘company without a head’ for last three years.
 |
| (Photo = Yonhap news) |
Chi-ho Han, senior expert of NBN TV (Ph.D. in Public Administration) pointed out, "There was a lot of controversy in the KFTC’s designation of Vice Chairman Lee Woo-hyun as the same person of OCI. Even if both Chairman Kim and Vice Chairman Lee were foreigners, KFTC’s conclusion was different. Coupang picked a great legal counsel to draw KFTC’s favorable decision.”
As Dr. Han pointed out, the KFTC designated Vice Chairman Lee as the same person in 2018 when he was a foreign national.
Coupang’s legal counsel Shin Jung-ha told AlphaBiz that "our company has never paid tens of billions won to an external legal counsel as a contingent fee for preventing the KFTC’s designation of the same person."
Alphabiz 김영택 기자(sitory0103@alphabiz.co.kr)
