The flags of Korea, the United States and Coupang hang at New York Stock Exchange on March 11, 2021, when Coupang Inc., the U.S.-headquartered holding firm of Coupang, begin its trading. Yonhap
Korea’s antitrust watchdog on Wednesday designated Coupang founder Kim Bom-suk, better known as Bom Kim, as the legally accepted head of e-commerce giant Coupang, a move that will put him under a wider range of regulatory scrutiny.
The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) released its 2026 list of business groups subject to public disclosure and designated Kim, the board chairman of Coupang’s U.S.-based headquarter Coupang Inc., as the group’s “same person” — a legal term referring to the individual deemed to effectively control a conglomerate.
The term is based on the concept that all affiliates in a business group are de facto controlled by a single individual and treated as one economic entity. Once designated, the person and his or her relatives are required to submit extensive disclosures on governance and shareholding. The designation also subjects the group to broader regulations on issues such as unfair intra-group support and circular shareholding.
Until Wednesday, Coupang’s legally recognized leader had been its corporate entity rather than an individual, as the regulation provides an exemption when the apparent controlling person and his or her relatives are not involved in managing domestic affiliates.
The FTC said, however, that Kim’s younger brother, Kim Yoo-seok, has served as Coupang’s vice president, received annual compensation comparable to that of the company’s board members, hosted corporate meetings on logistics and delivery policies and exerted influence over the company’s key businesses.
Kim Yoo-seok is an unregistered executive at Coupang Inc. He currently oversees Coupang’s delivery camp management division as vice president, but Coupang stresses that he was reassigned from U.S. headquarters to the Korean operation. According to a filing Coupang submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he received around 630 million won ($427,000) last year in salary.
Coupang said in a statement that it will file an administrative suit against the decision.
It stressed that it has no risk of exploiting corporate benefits for private purposes, the core reason for imposing the regulation, because its governance structure is highly simplified and the Kim family holds no stakes in Korean affiliates.
“As a U.S.-listed company, Coupang Inc. is subject to strict oversight obligations, requirements mandated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,” Coupang said. “The Korean Coupang entity has consistently met the conditions for exemption from same-person designation.”
Source: Korea Times News
