The flags of Korea, the United States and Coupang hang at New York Stock Exchange, March 11, 2021, when Coupang Inc., the U.S.-headquartered holding firm of Coupang, began its trading. Yonhap
Korea’s antitrust watchdog on Wednesday named Coupang founder Kim Bom-suk, better known as Bom Kim, as the legally designated controller of the e-commerce giant, 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 parent company Coupang Inc., as the group’s “same person” — a legal term referring to an 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 their 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.
Kim, a U.S. national, became the second foreign national designated as a controlling figure of a Korean conglomerate, following OCI Holdings Chairman Lee Woo-hyun.
Coupang was first categorized as a conglomerate by the FTC in 2021, as its aggregated assets surpassed 5 trillion won ($3.39 billion). 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 their 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, led 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. who currently oversees the delivery camp management division as vice president. According to a filing submitted to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, he received approximately 630 million won in salary last year. But Coupang has emphasized that he was dispatched from its U.S. headquarters to the Korean operation and was not actually involved in the company's management.
The FTC said it secured evidence that the younger Kim is involved in Coupang's management after launching a broad on-site inspection of Coupang’s headquarters earlier this year following last year’s massive customer data breach.
“Information such as his salary and rank had already been disclosed at the National Assembly hearing over the Coupang data breach late last year,” FTC Business Group Monitoring Bureau Director Choi Jang-gwan said during a press briefing.
Source: Korea Times News
