South Korea broadband firm sues Netflix after traffic surge from ‘Squid Game’

The Netflix series ‘Squid Game’ on a mobile phone. SK Broadband said it lodged a lawsuit against Netflix for it to pay for using SK’s networks since Netflix began using SK’s dedicated line starting 2018 to deliver increasingly larger amounts of data-heavy, high-definition video content to viewers in Korea from servers in Japan and Hong Kong. — Reuters

SEOUL: South Korean Internet service provider SK Broadband has sued Netflix to pay for costs from increased network traffic and maintenance work because of a surge of viewers to the US firm’s content, an SK spokesperson said on Oct 1.

The move comes after a Seoul court said Netflix should “reasonably” give something in return to the Internet service provider for network usage, and multiple South Korean lawmakers have spoken out against content providers who do not pay for network usage despite generating explosive traffic.