The commission said Tuesday it will change Coupang’s designation from the “Coupang corporation” to Chairman Kim.
Since Coupang was classified as a large business group in 2021, Kim had avoided being named the “same person,” citing his U.S. citizenship and the absence of relatives in management.
However, after it became known last year that his brother was serving as a Coupang vice president, critics said Kim should be designated. Ahead of this year’s decision, the FTC conducted an on-site inspection of Coupang.
The FTC said it determined Coupang did not meet the enforcement decree’s exception conditions for “same person” designation. It said the vice president’s position was at the top tier within Coupang, comparable to the level of chief executive officers at major affiliates.
Choi Jang-gwan, director general of the FTC’s Corporate Group Supervision Bureau, said at a briefing that the vice president’s annual pay was in line with the average for registered executives at the same level and that he received treatment comparable to registered executives, including an assigned secretary. Choi said the vice president hosted “hundreds” of regular and ad hoc meetings on logistics and delivery policy and “in effect” influenced specific directions for executing work on major businesses.
With Kim designated, Coupang must disclose overseas affiliates in which relatives and other related parties hold stakes above a certain level. The designation also brings a ban on unfairly providing benefits to related parties. If an overseas affiliate directly or indirectly holds shares in a domestic affiliate, Coupang must disclose the “same person’s” shareholding status in the overseas affiliate.
Some have argued the FTC’s standards for making such designations have shifted from the past. Choi said large business group designations are based on materials submitted by companies, with after-the-fact accountability when problems such as false submissions are found. He said issues were raised during a Coupang hearing and a report was filed on the vice president’s management participation, leading the FTC to identify matters it had not previously found.
The FTC also said the “same person” designation changed for Jungheung Construction, from Chairman Chang-sun Jung to his eldest son, Vice Chairman Won-ju Jung, following the chairman’s death. Dunamu remained designated as a “corporation” because it met exception conditions under the enforcement decree.
The FTC said it designated 102 business groups with total assets of 5 trillion won or more — comprising 3,538 affiliated companies — as large business groups. It said the number of large business groups increased from last year’s 92.
Newly designated groups include Line, the Korea Teachers’ Credit Union, Woongjin, Shieldus, Daemyung Chemical, Toss, Kolmar Korea, Heesung, Orion, QCP Group and Iljin Global, the FTC said. Youngone was excluded after its total assets fell.
Among large business groups, 47 with total assets of 12 trillion won or more — equal to 0.5% of the latest confirmed nominal gross domestic product figure of 2,408.7 trillion won — were designated as cross-shareholding-restricted groups, up one from last year. Kyobo Life Insurance and Daou Kiwoom were upgraded to that category, while E-Land was downgraded to a large business group.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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