South Korean Internet service provider SK Broadband has won a ruling in a local court ordering Netflix to pay it fair compensation for an increase in views of the popular Korean series “Squid Game.”
According to The Hindu, the firm argues that the hit film has increased network traffic on their infrastructure, forcing extra maintenance work.
Netflix’s data traffic has increased 24 times since 2018, when it picked SK Broadband as its exclusive platform to offer data-heavy, high-definition video content to South Koreans. SK claims to have handled over 1.2 trillion bits of Netflix data computed every second to date.
A Seoul court ruled that Netflix should “reasonably” give something back to SK for the unprecedented usage of its services.
SK Broadband is seeking $22 million as an estimated cost of network usage by Netflix in 2020.
Netflix disagrees with this value, but says it will conduct negotiations with the internet company to find a solution that would not impact users.
The US video streaming firm claims that its platform has produced 16,000 employment in South Korea while also facilitating $648 million in investments and more than $4.7 billion in overall “economic benefit.”
Proceedings of Netflix’s appeal to the court ruling is set to start in late December.