A Korean company hired me as a freelancer, took the work, and won't pay the invoice — I'm a digital nomad who's already left Korea. Is it worth pursuing?

Yes, it is enforceable; yes, there is a cheap route built for exactly this size of claim; and yes, you have rights in the work that change the conversation — a Korean startup that launched a brand on unpaid designs is using copyrighted material without the license it never finished paying for, and that is a stronger lever than a fourth invoice. Whether it is "worth it" depends on the startup having money, which is checkable from public records before you spend anything.

What this is under Korean law

A contract for services is formed by agreement; Korean law does not require a particular form, and an email exchange with a signed scope document is a contract, provable by the emails themselves. Your claim is for the price of services performed, under the Civil Act, with statutory interest from the due date — and, once litigation begins, at the higher rate the Act on Special Cases Concerning Expedition of Legal Proceedings provides.

The copyright point is separate and is Korean law's answer to "they're using it." Under the Copyright Act (저작권법, jeojakgwon-beop), copyright in a commissioned work belongs to the creator unless assigned in writing; a scope document that describes deliverables and a fee does not, by itself, assign copyright, and a common reading of a half-paid commission is that the license to use the work was conditional on payment. Using the logo, site and guidelines without paying is, on that reading, infringement — and infringement supports an injunction (가처분, gacheobun) stopping the use, and a claim for damages independent of the contract. A letter from Korean counsel pointing this out tends to be answered faster than an invoice.

The cheapest effective route

For a money claim of this size, the tool is a payment order (지급명령, jigeup myeongnyeong): a written application to the court with the contract, the delivery evidence and the invoices; the court serves it on the company; if the company does not object within two weeks, it becomes enforceable like a judgment, without a hearing. If the company objects, the case becomes a small claim (소액사건, soaek sageon) — the threshold is KRW 30 million, which your claim is under — with a single, light hearing that counsel attends for you. Court fees are modest and scale with the amount; legal work for a documented claim of this kind is limited, and fees are quoted individually after reviewing the case.

Enforcement follows against the company's bank accounts and receivables. A startup with investors has a bank account; the payment order and the enforcement together are usually enough.

Before any of that, a registry check: the company's registration, capital, directors and address are public, and they tell you whether it exists, who is behind it, and whether it is worth pursuing. That check costs almost nothing and answers your "worth it" question.

Pursuing it from Portugal

A power of attorney (위임장, wiimjang), notarized and apostilled in Portugal — Portugal and Korea are both Hague Apostille parties — authorizes Korean counsel to file and appear. Your presence is not needed. The emails, the scope document, the delivery files and the launch evidence (screenshots of the live site and any public use of the logo, with dates) are the case; assemble them now, because a startup that is not paying may also be one that is rebranding.

What to do now, and what not to do

Do not send another friendly reminder; you have three. Do not post publicly about the non-payment; Korean defamation law reaches foreign creditors, and it hands them a counterclaim. Do send, through counsel, one letter that states the debt, the interest, the copyright position and a deadline; then file the payment order the day after the deadline. Register your copyright in the work if you have not — not required for protection in Korea, but useful for the injunction application.

Practical insight

Foreign freelancers write off Korean invoices because they imagine a foreign lawsuit; the reality is a two-week payment order and a letter about copyright. Startups that ignore invoices from abroad do so because nothing has ever happened when they did; the first court document changes the calculation, and the copyright letter changes it before the court document arrives. The claim is small enough to be cheap and large enough to be worth one letter and one filing.

Send us the scope document, the emails and the company's name, and we can tell you within a day whether they are worth pursuing and what the letter should say — by text consultation or at +82-2-522-3959.

— MEGA X Law Firm Korea, Civil Litigation Team