Court rules in favor of partner of SK Group Chairman Chey in defamation lawsuit
![SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, right, and his partner Kim Hee-young attend a gala dinner hosted by the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris in November 2023. [JOONGANG ILBO]](https://image.koreajoongangdaily.com/12578431.webp?imageId=12578431&width=960&height=642&format=jpg)
A court ruled in favor of Kim Hee-young, the director of T&C Foundation and partner of SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won, in a defamation lawsuit against a YouTuber who posted false and malicious videos about her, according to judicial sources on Tuesday.
The Seoul Western District Court reportedly ordered the YouTuber to pay Kim 20 million won ($13,400) in damages on April 21.
In August 2024, the YouTuber posted two videos containing false claims about Kim and her mother and criticizing Kim's donation activities on their channel, which had 60,000 subscribers at the time.
Kim subsequently filed a lawsuit seeking 30 million won in damages, stating that “her honor, privacy and personal rights were seriously violated, causing her significant mental distress.”
The court sided with Kim, noting that “defamation through the internet spreads rapidly to an unspecified number of people” and that the YouTuber “increased their subscriber and viewer count through such defamation and profited from the views on YouTube.”
However, it reduced the damages from the requested 30 million won to 20 million won, taking into account that the content the YouTuber posted had previously circulated online and that they deleted the videos and shut down the channel.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY HYEON YE-SEUL [[email protected]]
