In a 35-page report released Wednesday following similar remarks in February this year, the House Judiciary Committee said, "South Korea has a long history of engaging in economic discrimination against foreign companies."
"These practices include coercive investigation tactics, overly burdensome regulatory requirements, and massive fines and penalties intended to punish American businesses," it added, accusing South Korea of unfairly targeting U.S.-owned firms and making it harder for them to compete with local companies.
The report devoted more than half its coverage to Coupang, which has been under investigation following a major data breach affecting nearly 40 million users that the company attributes to unauthorized access by a former employee.
"Coupang has been a consistent target of the South Korean government. South Korea has subjected Coupang to ceaseless investigations, unjustifiable demands from regulators, and even threatened to suspend the company's business operations," it said, alleging that South Korean authorities resorted to overly burdensome procedures and imposed disproportionate penalties.
The report further argues that South Korea's actions may "directly violates its recent trade agreement with the United States."
"South Korea's economic discrimination against American-owned businesses is part of a larger pattern of foreign governments weaponizing their broad discretion under competition laws and other regulatory regimes to shield their domestic industries from U.S. competition," it said, vowing that it would "continue its oversight to inform legislative reforms to better protect American business and consumers."
Coupang was slapped with a record fine of 624.6 billion won (US$409 million) early last month by South Korean watchdog Personal Information Protection Commission over a data breach last fall that affected about 37.55 million users, exposing their sensitive personal information.
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