Kakao Pay has filed an administrative lawsuit against a sanction received for providing customer information to Apple's payment service, Apple Pay, without customer consent from the Personal Information Protection Commission.
According to Kakao Pay on the 10th, the company asserts that its transfer of customer information to Alipay was not a violation of personal information leakage, but rather a "legal task outsourcing". Kakao Pay stated that the primary entity to whom the information was provided was Apple, while Alipay received it. The payment system within Apple is provided by Alipay, and all personal information processing tasks for Apple are also handled by Alipay.
However, the Personal Information Protection Commission determined that even if Kakao Pay provided information to Apple, it was aware that the information was delivered to Alipay, which constituted "third-party provision" and therefore required customer consent. The commission issued a sanction based on this reasoning for the personal information leakage.
In relation to this, the Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) recently held a deliberation meeting and decided to impose a penalty surcharge of about 15 billion won on Kakao Pay. The Financial Services Commission will finalize the level of sanctions after discussing the sanction items. The size of the penalty surcharge is expected to change depending on the outcome of the administrative lawsuit.
A Kakao Pay official said, "The criteria for 'task outsourcing' and 'third-party provision' of personal information are unclear, leading to ongoing confusion in the industry. We hope that a concrete guide will be established through legal review, and we made a cautious decision to file an administrative lawsuit. Kakao Pay will continue to clarify this matter in court and strive to become a reliable financial platform that can be used with peace of mind."