![Coupang Inc's headquarters in Seoul. [Yonhap]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/07/14/news-p.v1.20260714.510af516ee23402b9c12880cfdfb6060_P1.jpeg)
A Seoul court has suspended the Korea Fair Trade Commission's order designating Coupang Inc Chairman Kim Bom-seok as the conglomerate's controlling person, or "tongsuin."
The Seoul High Court's Administrative Division 7, presided over by Judge Kwon Sun-hyeong, granted Coupang's application for an injunction halting the Fair Trade Commission's reclassification order, according to legal sources Tuesday.
The court suspended the portion of the order that changed the designated controlling person from the corporate entity Coupang Inc to Chairman Kim, with the suspension to remain in effect until 30 days after the date of the final ruling on the merits. The court also suspended, for the same period, the commission's demand that Kim submit related documents — a request the Fair Trade Commission had issued in April.
The court said it found that "an urgent need has been demonstrated to prevent irreparable harm from occurring to the applicant (Coupang)." It added that there was "no basis to conclude that suspending the effect of the order would be contrary to the public interest."
The court applied the same reasoning in suspending the document-submission demand directed at Kim.
Earlier, the Fair Trade Commission announced its 2026 designation results for large business groups subject to disclosure requirements in April, reclassifying Coupang's controlling person from the corporate entity Coupang Inc to Kim as a natural person. It marked the first change in the controlling-person designation since Coupang was named a disclosure-subject business group in 2021, when its total assets exceeded 5 trillion won ($3.32 billion).
Under the Monopoly Regulation and Fair Trade Act, the controlling-person designation identifies the natural person or legal entity that effectively controls a business group, establishing the scope of governance oversight and regulatory obligations applicable to that group.
The commission determined that Kim's younger brother, Kim Yu-seok, exercises substantial influence over Coupang's operations, concluding that the condition for maintaining a corporate entity as the controlling person — namely, that relatives of the head must not be involved in managing domestic affiliates — was no longer met.
With Kim reclassified as the controlling person, he became obligated to disclose to the commission the shareholdings of himself, his spouse and other relatives in domestic and overseas affiliates.
In response, Coupang filed a lawsuit seeking to annul the designation order and simultaneously applied for the injunction to freeze its effect pending a decision on the merits.
At a hearing on the injunction application held in June, Coupang argued that it "is a typical foreign-based business group with a structure different from domestic conglomerates." The Fair Trade Commission rebuffed the claim, saying the grounds for changing the controlling-person designation had been confirmed.
The court had earlier suspended the commission's order on its own authority in May, as a provisional measure to allow time for deliberation on the injunction application and a final decision — a stay that had been set to expire Wednesday.
Article 23, Paragraph 2 of the Administrative Litigation Act allows a court handling a revocation suit to suspend, in whole or in part, the effect of an administrative disposition or its execution upon a party's application or on the court's own authority, when it finds an urgent need to prevent irreparable harm that would otherwise result from the disposition, its execution, or the continuation of related proceedings.
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