Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Hoon-gi [Provided by lawmaker's office]
Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Hoon-gi [Provided by lawmaker's office]

Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Lee Hoon-gi, who represents Incheon's Namdong-gu and sits on the National Assembly's Science, Technology, Information, Broadcasting and Communications Committee, called on the Korea Communications Commission on Monday to act against so-called "hijack ads" run through Coupang Inc and block the revenue structures that enable them.

"Hijack ads" are advertisements that redirect users to a specific app or website without their consent — even when the user has not clicked on the ad.

At the national audit hearing that day, Lee presented video footage of the ads in action to show how users are redirected without their consent.

Lee identified the advertising commission structure as the root cause of the recurring problem. Under the current system, if a user redirected to Coupang Inc makes a purchase within 24 hours, the ad publisher receives a 3 percent commission on the transaction. As long as purchases triggered by forced redirects count as valid advertising results, he argued, hijack ads will continue to generate profit.

Lee urged that "purchases resulting from hijack ads be excluded from advertising performance metrics and that related incentive payments be cut off." He also called on Korea Communications Commission Chairman Kim Jong-cheol to draw up a plan to eradicate Coupang Inc hijack ads to protect online users, and said he would push for an amendment to the Telecommunications Business Act to eliminate the practice.

The Personal Information Protection Commission fined Coupang Inc 201.1 billion won ($150 million) in June for illegally collecting the web and app usage records of about 11.17 million members.

"Coupang Inc hijack ads go beyond mere inconvenience — they raise serious personal information violations, including the unauthorized collection of private data," Lee said. "To eradicate hijack ads, we must cut off the financial incentives that allow bad actors to profit from fraudulent advertising."

Commission Chairman Kim said in response that he "in principle believes regulations are needed" to eliminate hijack ads, and pledged to "strictly enforce the law on matters within our jurisdiction while supporting any related legislation."


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