Apple May Owe $3 Bil. for Tracking Korean iPhone Users
By wchung | 22 May, 2025

A $900 payment to a 36-year-old lawyer may be followed up by similar payments to over 3 million S. Korean iPhone users for a feature that allowed a user’s precise location to be tracked.

On Thursday Apple Korea confirmed that it had made its first compensation payment of one million won ($900) to Kim Hyung Suk pursuant to an order from a court in the southern city of Changwon.

Kim, a 36-year-old lawyer, filed the suit on April 26 claiming that he suffered emotional stress because the smartphone’s location recording infringed on his constitutional rights to privacy and freedom. The court’s judgment granted his full demand of one million won.

Apple Korea employee Cho Yoon Ju at the firm’s public relations department told AFP that the payment was made in late June, and denied that Apple had any objection to the order. As news of the payment spreads, S. Korea’s over 3 million iPhone users are likely to join in class action suits for similar levels of compensation, totaling about $3 billion.