On September 14, South Korean social commerce operator Coupang lodged a formal complaint against an employee of e-marketplace Auction for spreading false information online.
An Auction employee spread a rumor on social networking sites that a 34-year-old female deputy section chief had collapsed on her way to her job at Coupang and died of a heart attack probably brought on by 'overwork'. According to the rumor, Coupang was eager to expand its online open market business and thus pressured her, in charge of MD (Merchandising), to come up with 500 target products a day. As a result, she had to work extra hours every day and complained of fatigue before she died.
According to Coupang, a 30-something male employee actually died of a heart attack at his home. And he was on the management support team, not in charge of MD. Coupang suspected that there were vicious intentions behind the groundless rumor.
The relevant industry thinks that the incident was part of an ongoing war of nerves between the two. Coupang has recently announced its entry into the online open market business, perhaps ruffling the feathers of Auction, the second-largest online open marketplace in S. Korea.
American e-commerce company eBay acquired No.1 online open marketplace Gmarket in 2009 and Auction in 2001. Thus, the industry is watching the case closely to see whether Auction’s US headquarters could end up getting implicated in the alleged online rumor-mongering about Coupang.
“What Auction did is not seen to have been orchestrated by its headquarters in the US. However, Coupang’s entry into the online open market business must have unnerved Auction to a great degree,” an industry insider said.
