SK Telecom has filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the $91 million fine imposed by the Personal Information Protection Commission following the USIM data breach in April 2025.
According to local reports , SKT is expected to emphasize that it has already spent KRW1.2 trillion ($812.3 million) on compensating users and reforming its data protection system, and that this should be taken into consideration when calculating the fine. The operator is also reportedly expected to emphasize that users have not suffered any financial loss as a result of the data leak.
"We are seeking a detailed judicial review of whether the PIPC's penalty is appropriate," SKT said on Monday, as quoted by local media .
The mobile operator reportedly filed its lawsuit to overturn the fine imposed by PIPC on the last day of the 90-day appeal period.
In August last year, the Personal Information Protection Committee (PIPC) issued SKT with a record-breaking fine under South Korea's revised Personal Information Protection Act of 2023. The amount exceeded the combined fine of KRW100 billion ($67.75 million) that the PIPC had previously imposed on Google and Meta in 2022.
Senior Editor, APAC, Light Reading
Gigi Onag is Senior Editor, APAC, Light Reading. She has been a technology journalist for more than 15 years, covering various aspects of enterprise IT across Asia-Pacific.
She started with regional IT publications under CMP Asia (now Informa), including Asia Computer Weekly, Intelligent Enterprise Asia and Network Computing Asia and Teledotcom Asia. This was followed by stints with Computerworld Hong Kong and sister publications FutureIoT and FutureCIO. She had contributed articles to South China Morning Post, TechTarget and PC Market among others.
She interspersed her career as a technology editor with a brief sojourn into public relations before returning to journalism, joining the editorial team of Mix Magazine, a MICE publication and its sister publication Business Traveller Asia Pacific.
Gigi is based in Hong Kong and is keen to delve deeper into the region’s wide wild world of telecoms.
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