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Coupang's headquarters in Seoul/Yonhap News

A $5 million punitive damages class-action lawsuit filed in the United States over the Coupang data breach is poised to begin in earnest mid-next month. The US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn Federal Court) will hold its initial scheduling conference on June 17 to outline the discovery process and establish the litigation timeline.

According to reporting by Asia Today on May 28, US Magistrate Judge Marcia M. Henry will preside over the June 17 initial hearing to review the claims and core issues from both plaintiffs and defendants before formalizing the discovery schedule. Detailed arguments from both sides will subsequently be addressed during the motion practice and the merits phase.

During the hearing, Judge Henry is expected to coordinate specific protocols, such as electronic data production formats and subsequent hearing schedules, based on the Joint Discovery Plan submitted by the parties. Under Rule 26 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP), this plan is a negotiated framework detailing the scope, methods, and limitations of information exchange.

SJKP, the US affiliate firm cooperating with Daeryun Law Firm (LLC) representing the plaintiffs, is anticipated to formally request the commencement of discovery regarding Coupang’s internal security response logs, executive reporting lines, and data privacy governance structures during this initial hearing.

SJKP filed the class action in February against Coupang Inc. and Bom Kim, the executive chairman of Coupang Inc. The plaintiff class features US citizens surnamed Lee and Park as the named representative plaintiffs, alongside a separate sub-class comprising over 7,800 Coupang users in South Korea. The plaintiffs seek $5 million in damages, asserting that Chairman Kim failed to fulfill his data protection obligations as the final decision-maker for corporate security policies and fell short in constructing and managing robust security systems. In response, Coupang retained Kirkland & Ellis, the world's largest law firm, in February to mount its defense.

"While discovery officially kicks off from the initial scheduling conference, the actual operational pace may be adjusted depending on the July 6 deadline for the defendant’s answer and potential extensions for a Motion to Dismiss," noted Dong-hoo Son, a US-licensed attorney at Daeryun Law Firm.

Class Certification Identified as the Crucial Threshold

Legal observers forecast that the trajectory of the punitive damages class action will hinge on the Eastern District of New York's ruling regarding class certification. Class certification is the judicial screening procedure that determines whether a lawsuit may proceed as a class action by assessing whether the legal and factual claims can be uniformly applied across a large pool of victims.

Following the June 17 scheduling conference, the litigation will enter a highly active phase. The case has been assigned to US District Judge Ann M. Donnelly, a lifetime-appointed jurist, and US Magistrate Judge Marcia M. Henry, who serves an eight-year term. Judge Donnelly is responsible for presiding over the merits of the case, including the final judgment, while Judge Henry manages pretrial proceedings and procedural preparations.

Nominated by former President Barack Obama in November 2014, Judge Donnelly previously served in the New York County District Attorney's Office and as chief of the Family Violence and Child Abuse Bureau. Prior to her judicial appointment, Judge Henry oversaw cybersecurity regulation and enforcement policies at the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Only Judge Henry will attend the initial scheduling conference to organize the parties' positions and finalize the discovery timeline. The litigation will thereafter progress through the defendant's answer, motions to dismiss, fact discovery, class certification, expert depositions, summary judgment, and eventually a settlement or trial.

Judge Donnelly will enter the proceedings during the class certification stage, which is widely viewed as the structural turning point of the litigation. If the court certifies the class, the defendant faces potential liability extended across thousands or tens of thousands of individuals, rather than a single claimant.

To secure certification, plaintiffs must satisfy four foundational prerequisites. "Class certification is the phase where a federal judge formally recognizes whether the named plaintiff possesses the standing to represent a vast group of individuals facing identical harm, rather than litigating an isolated personal grievance," Attorney Son explained.

"The plaintiffs must satisfy the requirements of numerosity, commonality of legal or factual questions, typicality of the representative's claims, and adequacy of representation by both the named plaintiffs and class counsel," Son added. "Once a class is certified, defendants face intense pressure to settle rather than risk a final verdict. Statistics from the Eastern District of New York show that over 90% of certified class actions resolve immediately through settlement."

Because class certification functions as the definitive gatekeeper for the entire lawsuit, both sides are expected to channel significant legal talent and corporate resources into this specific phase given the millions of dollars in punitive damages at stake.

                                                                                                           Jeong Min-hun