Coupang Logs High Earnings Amid 2.19 Billion Won Fine On Marketing Breaches

South Korea's e-commerce giant Coupang posted high earnings for 2025 despite being fined for pressuring suppliers to meet its targeted profit.

The New York-listed company's net income attributable to shareholders rose by $54 million year-on-year to $208 million, according to a company press release published early on Friday.

The diluted earnings per share climbed to $0.11 from a year earlier.

Operating income jumped by $37 million year on year to $473 million, while total net revenues increased 14% from the prior year to $34.5 billion.

The earnings announcement came almost in time with the Fair Trade Commission's sanctions against Coupang violations against its large-scale distribution act. The retailer was slapped with a fine of 2.19 billion Korean won for requiring suppliers to reduce unit prices and shoulder additional costs, including advertising costs, to meet its margin targets.

The company also delayed payments of product prices to suppliers, while burdening them with their program that prohibits the return of unsold items, according to a release from the regulator.

Coupang was found that have delayed payments to 25,715 suppliers in 508,752 direct purchase transactions between October 2021 and June 2024.

The regulator said Coupang has been using "retaliatory measures such as order suspension or reduction when suppliers refuse or are uncooperative."

The sanctions came after the company experienced a massive data breach in November 2025, when a former employee illegally accessed data from more than 33 million user accounts. Company heads addressed the issue during the earnings conference call, where Chairman Bom Kim apologized for the incident.

Harold Rogers, the general counsel and interim head of the Korean subsidiary, assured investors that there was no evidence that any of the data was viewed by anyone else, nor was the data exploited.

"While the investigation by one of the Korean agencies has concluded, others are still ongoing, and additional investigations may be initiated. It's too early to know what may come of these investigations, or to what extent any fines or other actions may follow," Rogers said.