South Korea’s antitrust regulator said on Monday it is imposing a 300.8 billion won ($220.59 million) fine on Coupang for abusing its dominant position in the food delivery market. The Korea Fair Trade Commission said Coupang required restaurants to match six conditions offered on rival platforms, including menu prices, minimum order amounts, discounts and delivery charges, and penalised those that failed to comply, with non-compliant restaurants risking the loss of a designation that let them offer discounts and free delivery to Coupang’s paid membership customers. The share of restaurants meeting the requirements rose to nearly 94 percent in October 2025 from about 13 percent in July 2023, the commission said.
The commission also fined Woowa Brothers, the operator of rival delivery app Baemin, 331.1 billion won for similar practices. Coupang said the penalty was excessive, more than 600 times the fine in a comparable 2020 case, and that the commission had included revenue unrelated to the alleged conduct in the calculation; it said it would challenge the decision through legal proceedings. The ruling follows a 624 billion won fine imposed on Coupang in June over a 2025 data breach that affected more than 33 million customers.