SK Telecom has rejected a mediation proposal from the Personal Information Protection Commission’s Dispute Mediation Committee, which called for the company to compensate each victim of the data breach with 300,000 won.
According to industry sources on November 20, SK Telecom submitted a document to the Personal Information Dispute Mediation Committee that afternoon, formally stating its decision not to accept the proposal.
SK Telecom stated, "While we respect the committee’s decision, we have decided not to accept the mediation proposal because the proactive compensation and recurrence prevention measures taken by the company after the incident were not sufficiently reflected in the proposal."
The company added, "We will continue to take measures to restore customer trust and prevent further damage."
Previously, at a plenary session on November 4, the Dispute Mediation Committee recommended that SK Telecom pay 300,000 won in damages to each of the 3,998 individuals who filed for dispute mediation.
The compensation amount was calculated to reflect psychological damages, such as concerns over mobile phone cloning due to the misuse of leaked information, as well as confusion and inconvenience experienced during the SIM card replacement process.
If the mediation were accepted, it would have the same legal effect as a court settlement. However, since SK Telecom has rejected the proposal, applicants will now have to file civil lawsuits and go through court proceedings to receive compensation.
SK Telecom’s refusal is rooted in concerns that, if all victims applied for mediation under the same conditions, the total compensation could reach as much as 7 trillion won.
The current applicants number 3,998 (3,267 from three collective disputes and 731 individual applicants), which is only about 0.02% of the estimated total number of victims. If this is applied to the estimated 23 million victims, the total compensation would amount to approximately 6.9 trillion won.
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