Why is there a lawsuit against netflix

Key Points. The company claims the popularity of Netflix's show "Squid Game" led to a surge in network traffic, and it's asking Netflix to pay associated maintenance costs. While the decree defining the details of the service stability regulation ended up not obliging the streamers to pay network fees, the Korean ISPs saw the law as a precedent and an encouragement to press harder. Netflix last year launched its own legal action against SK Broadband in order to test the fees question in court.

Netflix has also offered a hardware solution, called Open Connect Appliances, to help ISPs route traffic efficiently through local data centers which are quicker and cheaper than accessing overseas servers. But it says that SK Broadband has not taken up its offer. The series director Hwang Dong-hyuk remains coy about a series sequel.

Home Biz Asia. Oct 4, am PT. By Patrick Frater Plus Icon. A South Korean internet service provider has filed a lawsuit against Netflix, asking that the company be ordered to pay for costs caused by a surge of traffic driven by the popularity of the series Squid Game. The dispute began in , when SK Broadband filed a complaint over Netflix's refusal to pay usage fees with the Korea Communications Commission. The companies failed to reach a settlement, according to a Korea Economic Daily report, leading Netflix to sue SK Broadband in April , seeking a declaration that it was not obligated to pay any extra fees.

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. Netflix said it will review SK Broadband's claim, and seek dialogue and explore ways in the meantime to work with SK Broadband to ensure customers are not affected.

The popularity of the hit series "Squid Game" and other offerings have underscored Netflix's status as the country's second-largest data traffic generator after Google's YouTube, but the two are the only ones to not pay network usage fees, which other content providers such as Amazon, Apple and Facebook are paying, SK said.

Netflix's data traffic handled by SK jumped 24 times from May to 1. 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 to deliver increasingly larger amounts of data-heavy, high-definition video content to viewers in Korea from servers in Japan and Hong Kong.