The Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA) has begun administrative action against advertisers who sent KakaoTalk brand messages to users who had only consented to receive SMS. KISA is treating those sends as illegal spam, requesting written justification from the advertisers and issuing corrective orders.
The principle behind the action matters more than the individual cases: marketing consent in Korea is granted per channel, not per customer. The same person, reachable at the same phone number, still has to opt in separately for each medium.
Under Korea's Network Act, commercial messages require explicit consent for each medium used to deliver them. SMS, voice calls, email, and KakaoTalk each count as a separate medium with a separate consent requirement.
This is where most international teams get caught. The consent a user gives for collection and use of personal data at signup does not include consent to receive commercial messages. The two rest on different legal grounds and must be collected separately, with separate wording.
A single "I agree to receive marketing communications" checkbox that silently covers every channel is exposed under this standard. Listing the channels and letting users opt into each one is the defensible design.
Advertisers who keep sending KakaoTalk ads after receiving a corrective order face a fine of up to KRW 30 million (roughly USD 22,000) under the Network Act. Critically, the fine lands on the advertiser, not the messaging vendor. Outsourcing the send does not outsource the obligation to prove valid consent.
KakaoTalk has become the highest-open-rate CRM channel in Korea, and that pull created a common shortcut: migrating an SMS-consented list straight into KakaoTalk campaigns. This enforcement wave targets exactly that shortcut.
When, in what wording, and for which medium consent was captured is the entire substance of a KISA response. Splitting consent into channel-level fields turns a compliance record into a usable audience field as well — the same first-party data hygiene covered in Google Expands Data Manager to Put First-Party Data to Work Across Analytics and DV360.
If any answer stalls, re-permissioning the list costs less than the fine.
No. Korean law requires explicit consent per medium — SMS, phone, email, and KakaoTalk are treated separately. KISA is issuing corrective orders to advertisers who relied on SMS consent to send KakaoTalk brand messages.
No. Consent to collect and use personal data is legally distinct from consent to receive commercial messages. They must be collected separately, and the marketing consent must name the delivery channel.
Continuing to send after a corrective order can trigger a fine of up to KRW 30 million under Korea's Network Act, assessed against the advertiser.
Yes. The fine is assessed against the advertiser. The brand remains responsible for demonstrating that valid, channel-specific consent was obtained.
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