Lotte Group: "Lotte Card is Unrelated to the Group... Strong Protest Against Significant Damage"

"Lotte Card's Owner is Private Equity Firm MBK... Brand Image Damaged by Hacking Incident"

Lotte Card Sends Official Letter Signed by CEO to Apologize to Lotte Group

Aerial View of Lotte World Tower [Photo Courtesy of Lotte E&C]


Regarding the recent Lotte Card hacking incident, Lotte Group stated on the 21st, "Although Lotte Card is not an affiliate of the Lotte Group, the damage to our brand value due to customer confusion is reaching a serious level."

The majority shareholder of Lotte Card is MBK Partners. After transitioning to a holding company structure in 2017, Lotte was unable to hold shares in financial and insurance affiliates due to the Fair Trade Act, and subsequently sold Lotte Card to MBK Partners in 2019.

However, since Lotte Card still uses the 'Lotte' brand and collaborates in various sectors such as distribution, food, and tourism, it is often perceived as a Lotte Group affiliate, leading to damage.

Lotte Group emphasized in a press release that "Lotte is suffering irreversible tangible and intangible damages due to this hacking incident. If Lotte Card experiences an increase in customer churn, it is inevitable that sales will decrease at Lotte businesses with which we have cooperative relationships. Most importantly, the decline in trust felt by customers who mistake Lotte Card for a Lotte affiliate is painful."

Lotte stated that personal information of some of its employees was also leaked in this incident, as Lotte Card is responsible for issuing exclusive cards for Lotte Group executives and employees.

Lotte Group has strongly protested to Lotte Card regarding the significant damage caused by the erosion of brand value and decline in customer trust. It was also reported that Lotte Card sent an official letter with an apology from its CEO on the 18th.

In an official letter titled 'CEO's Apology Regarding Lotte Card's Cyber Intrusion Incident,' Cho Ja-jin, CEO of Lotte Card, apologized to Lotte Group, its executives and employees, and customers, promising to "personally oversee the situation until the disruption caused by the incident concludes." Yonhap News