Greenoaks Accuses South Korea Of Discriminating Against US Firms, Cozying Up To Beijing

A top U.S. investment firm announced Thursday it is launching trade and legal actions accusing South Korea of discriminating against American companies — a campaign Greenoaks framed as part of a broader shift that advantages Chinese competitors.

Greenoaks said it has served a notice of intent to submit a dispute to investor-state arbitration under the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) investment chapter and separately petitioned the U.S. Trade Representative to initiate an investigation into Seoul under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974. (RELATED: Can America Count On South Korea To Help With Taiwan? Maybe Not)

“When a close ally penalizes a U.S. company for its success, it compromises a vital partnership and opens the door to competitors that don’t play by the rules,” Greenoaks founder and managing partner Neil Mehta said. “That is bad for U.S. investors, bad for Korean consumers and workers, and bad for the U.S.-Korea relationship.”

The firm’s filings center on Coupang, U.S.-incorporated company facing a “multi-year pattern” of selective enforcement, raids, audits, and escalating regulatory pressure that “far exceed” scrutiny applied to domestic Korean and Chinese competitors. Greenoaks claims that after a 2025 data incident, Seoul mobilized more than a dozen agencies—including tax, labor, customs, and intelligence bodies—and that officials pushed for raids, blocked commercial agreements, and pressured Korea’s national pension fund to divest its Coupang holdings.

South Korean scrutiny intensified following a breach involving roughly 33.7 million Coupang customer accounts, with a former employee accused of unauthorized access, according to Coupang’s own incident update. The company said the perpetrator retained data from approximately 3,000 accounts and 2,609 building entrance access codes but maintained the data was deleted and never shared.

Greenoaks’ materials also tie the dispute to geopolitics, pointing to South Korean President Lee Jae Myung’s recent push for a “new phase” and “full-scale restoration” of ties with China during a meeting with Xi Jinping in Beijing earlier this month, Reuters reported.

.@realdonaldtrump has worked hard to rebalance the trade relationship with Korea & it would be very unfortunate if Korea undermines his efforts by targeting U.S. tech firms. The National Assembly’s aggressive targeting of Coupang will set the stage for further KFTC discriminatory…

— Robert C. O’Brien (@robertcobrien) December 23, 2025

Several U.S. figures have publicly criticized Seoul’s posture toward Coupang. Former national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien warned in an X post that targeting Coupang could “set the stage” for broader barriers against U.S. firms, while Republican Wisconsin Rep. Scott Fitzgerald and Republican California Rep. Darrell Issa blasted Korea’s actions in separate posts.

Harassing American companies is unacceptable.

America will always protect our workers and businesses. https://t.co/GEK2J6fI36

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) January 13, 2026

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan was blunt: “Harassing American companies is unacceptable.”