[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] Domestic credit card companies and banks that suffered customer personal information leaks will receive hundreds of billions of won in damages from Korea Credit Bureau (KCB).
According to the legal community on the 4th, the Seoul Central District Court Civil Division 17 (Chief Judge Kim Sung-won) recently ruled in a damages lawsuit filed by KB Kookmin Card and NongHyup Bank against KCB, ordering KCB to compensate KB Kookmin Card and NongHyup Bank 40.4 billion won and 18 billion won respectively.
Previously, KB Kookmin Card and NongHyup Bank had signed a service contract with KCB to develop a credit card fraud prevention system, but KCB employee A leaked the personal information of 53.78 million KB Kookmin Card customers and 25.11 million NongHyup Bank customers from 2012 to 2013.
During the trial, KCB denied responsibility, claiming that "KCB employees did not request customer information, but the card companies arbitrarily provided customer information for work convenience."
However, the court stated, "KCB had a duty of care to prevent the leakage of the plaintiff's customer information but neglected this duty, and ultimately an employee leaked the information, committing an illegal act that infringed on customer information," and ruled that "KCB bears employer liability under civil law."
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