Kim Hyung-Suk has been busy these past few months. An attorney based out of Seoul, he gained a bit of notoriety for being the first person to receive a cash settlement from Apple for the iPhone’s location-tracking tendencies. He also announced that he and his law firm, Mirae Law, would be looking into the possibility of filing a class-action suit against Apple. According to a report from Bloomberg, with 27,000 Korean complainants on board, that suit was filed today.
Credit where credit is due, Kim Hyung-Suk certainly has a sense of humor. The website set up by his firm last July to reach out to potential plaintiffs greets visitors with an ironic spin on Apple’s language: “Finally. The real action against Apple. Now available here.”
Mr. Hyung-Suk’s original payout was 1 million won (roughly $930), and the firm is seeking that same reward for each of the 27,000 affected customers. This news comes hot on the heels of news that Apple was being fined 3 million ($2,808) won by the Korea Communications Commission for collecting location data even when users disabled all the pertinent features. If this keeps up, Apple may soon be looking at paying out some serious money in compensation.
Should Apple settle in this suit, the rough total in compensation paid out would be the Korean equivalent of over $25 million. Given that Kim Hyung-Suk successfully got his piece of the pie, Apple may be looking at some serious legal maneuvers to try and get the suit dismissed. In fairness, with over $76 billion in their domestic coffers, the settlement costs would be a proverbial drop in the bucket. Still, expect to see Apple put up a concerted defense against the suit in coming weeks.