[Asia Economy Reporter Kiho Sung] As the revised Personal Information Protection Act, which has undergone major revisions for the first time in 10 years, was submitted to the National Assembly, related industries are unable to hide their anxiety. In particular, concerns have been raised that startups could suffer damage as the scope of fines has been expanded compared to the current law.
According to the financial sector on the 3rd, 11 organizations including the Korea Fintech Industry Association, Korea Venture Business Association, Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business, Korea Startup Forum, Korea Game Industry Association, Korea Employers Federation, Korea Digital Advertising Association, Korea Women Venture Association, Korea Online Shopping Association, Korea Internet Corporations Association, and Korea Telecommunications Operators Association jointly issued a statement on the revised Personal Information Protection Act on the 30th of last month.
In their statement, they said, "The Personal Information Protection Commission announced the revised Personal Information Protection Act in January, raising the fine regulations from the current law’s ‘related sales’ standard to the ‘total sales’ standard. However, although fines based on total sales could strangle the entire industry, the fine regulations in the revision were submitted to the National Assembly without sufficient discussion with stakeholders and without any modification to the premise of ‘total sales,’ making it impossible to predict what damage may occur to the domestic industry in the future."
Earlier, the Personal Information Protection Commission (PIPC) approved the revised Personal Information Protection Act, which had been agreed upon within the government at the Cabinet meeting, and submitted it to the National Assembly. The revision includes ▲strengthening data subject rights such as the right to transmission requests ▲reorganizing the digital-centered legal system ▲ensuring consistency with global personal information regulations.
In particular, the increase in fines that companies must pay for violations of the law (up to 3% of total sales) is controversial. The industry, including the aforementioned organizations, has continuously requested the commission to revise the fine regulations to be based on related sales, fearing that excessively imposed fines beyond the scope of responsibility would cause significant damage to the domestic industry.
The associations pointed out, "If fines are imposed including sales from business areas unrelated to personal information processing, companies that intended to newly enter the data utilization sector will give up on business entry. In a situation where enforcement against foreign companies cannot be guaranteed, only domestic companies will be excessively fined, losing competitiveness in the global market."
They continued, "If unbearable fines are imposed on venture companies and startups leading Korea’s future, they will no longer be able to operate their businesses, which will soon lead to the collapse of the growth engine of the domestic industry. We earnestly ask the National Assembly to amend the second revision so that the fine regulations can be maintained based on ‘related sales’ as in the current law, so that the ladder of Korea’s future growth is not cut off."
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