Korea Strengthens Data Protection Law

Bloomberg BNA reports that Korea has amended its framework data protection law, opting to increase fines and lower the liability threshold in order to levy fines in the first place. Under the amended law, originally enacted in 2011 in response to a massive data breach, plaintiffs will also be able to sue without proving damages. Violation of any provision of the act leading to a loss of personal information can now result in fines of up to 3% of an offending companies’ revenue.

This is certainly a toughening of Korea’s framework data protection law. Not only will fines have more bite, but it will be far easier to show a company to be in violation of the act. The amendment even goes so far as to eliminate a provision requiring evidence of deliberate negligence to enforce a revenue-based fine. Businesses will be held liable for a data breach with or without proven fault on their part.

For more information, check out the complete Bloomberg BNA article.
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Sean Hayes may be contacted at: [email protected]

Sean Hayes is co-chair of the Korea Practice Team at IPG Legal. He is the first non-Korean attorney to have worked for the Korean court system (Constitutional Court of Korea) and one of the first non-Koreans to be a regular member of a Korean law faculty. He has, recently, been ranked as one of only two non-Korean attorneys as a Top Attorney working in Korea by AsiaLaw.