The nation’s Internet watchdog said Tuesday that it has imposed fines and penalties on eight social commerce services, including the three biggest ― Ticket Monster, Coupang and Groupon Korea ― for negligent control of user information.

The Korea Communications Commission, which surveyed 13 daily deal services, found that eight companies have violated the data protection law by collecting user data without proper consent process or transferring the information to others for commercial use.

“In some cases, companies were found to have used the personal information of children aged under 14 without the approval of their legal guardians,” a KCC official said.

According to the KCC, Ticket Monster, which was acquired by LivingSocial last year, was ordered to pay the largest amount of 87.1 million won ($76,300) in administrative penalties and another 4.5 million won in fines.

The Korean operation of Groupon was also charged with 28 million won in penalties and 8 million won in fines, while Coupang, the market No. 1 in terms of monthly revenue, was fined with 3 million won.

The penalty amount had been halved, the KCC said, considering that companies did not deliberately violate the law and were active in carrying out the corrective orders that they received.

The nation’s social shopping industry has grown into a 1 trillion won market in just two years, with the market size being expected to nearly double this year.

By Lee Ji-yoon (jylee@heraldcorp.com)