‘Squid Game’ is so popular that a South Korean internet provider is suing Netflix

A South Korean internet provider has sued Netflix for costs incurred from increased internet traffic and maintenance work following the premiere of “Squid Game.”

The lawsuit: On Friday, a spokesperson from SK Broadband told Reuters that Netflix’s traffic handled by the company has increased by 24 times from May 2018. The traffic increased to 1.2 trillion bits of data processed per second in September 2021, the same month “Squid Game” premiered on the streaming platform.

Netflix said it would review SK Broadband’s claim and find a workaround to prevent customers from being affected by the issue.
Last year, South Korean lawmakers passed an amendment to the country’s Telecommunications Business Act that holds streaming services responsible for network issues caused by increased traffic due to their content, Forbes reported.

Past event: Netflix filed its own lawsuit against SK Broadband last year, arguing its duty ends after leaving created content accessible to viewers. The lawsuit also said the broadband company’s expenses were incurred while “fulfilling its contractual obligations to Internet users.”

In June, the Seoul Central District Court ruled against Netflix, saying streaming services should “reasonably” pay internet service providers for network usage. Other lawmakers also spoke out against content providers who do not pay network usage after their shows generate a large amount of online traffic.
According to court documents, Netflix must pay SK Broadband an estimated 27.2 billion won ($22.9 million) in network usage fees for 2020. The streaming giant appealed against the ruling in July, and new proceedings are set to take place in December.

Other details: In an online event last week, Kang Dong-han, Netflix’s vice president of content for Korea, said his company’s investment has generated an economic effect in the country worth 5.6 trillion won ($4.7 billion), Yonhap News Agency reported.

Kang also said this investment “created 16,000 jobs in various industries related to entertainment and content creation…And other industries like fashion and food have received a ripple effect worth an additional 2.7 trillion won.”

Featured Image via Netflix

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