Homeplus to compensate customers for selling personal data

Homeplus / Yonhap

By Jung Min-ho

Retail chain Homeplus has been ordered to pay customers 80 million won ($75,000) in damages for selling their personal information to insurance companies without their consent.

The Seoul Central District Court ruled Thursday that Homeplus must pay 83,650,000 won to 519 people, who sued the company in 2015 for selling information such as their names, phone numbers and bank accounts to life insurance companies.

Each plaintiff will receive between 50,000 and 300,000 won compensation.

The court also ordered the two insurance companies ― Shinhan Life Insurance and Lina Life Insurance Korea ― to bear some of the payouts (11.2 million won for Shinhan and 4.8 million won for Lina).

Homeplus obtained the information by holding promotional giveaways, in which customers had to provide personal data to receive prizes.

The company claimed it could not accept liability because Homeplus gave prior notice on the back of coupons about how such information might be used.

But because the text was so small ― only about one-millimeter ― the court rejected the claim.

“It was a violation of the law that protects the right of self-determination of personal data,” the court said. “It is more serious than just leaking personal information by mistake.”

But the court dismissed the argument that the insurance firms colluded.

Between December 2011 and June 2014, Homeplus collected the personal information of more than 7 million people through promotional events.

The company made about 1.19 billion won profit by selling the information to insurance companies.

After the issue came to the fore, more than 1,000 people filed a suit against the firm. But the court did not acknowledge the damage claims of some people, citing a lack of evidence.