In Korea, a regulatory authority has now imposed fines against three gaming companies. These go up to 775,000 euros. There are issues with the loot boxes – especially Nexon is facing a hefty fine.
The South Korean “Fair Trade Commission” (FTC) has imposed fines against three gaming companies because they are suspected of misleading customers. The affected companies are Nexon (MapleStory), Netmarble (Lineage 2 Revolution), and NextFloor.
Nexon has been fined the highest penalty of 944.5 million Korean won, which is about 775,000 euros.
The penalty was imposed for the loot box event “Celebrity Count”, which took place in November 2016 during “Sudden Attack”, a free-to-play shooter.
A customer spent €335 to obtain all 16 pieces of the puzzle
During the event, players could purchase loot boxes that contained pieces to assemble a 16-piece puzzle featuring a celebrity. When the puzzle was completed, there were in-game items. One box cost approximately 68 cents. The event took place in November 2016.
The problem: The publisher stated that the 16 pieces of the puzzle were available with a random chance.
However, the FTC says that Nexon should have provided more information. Including information on how low the chances were of obtaining specific pieces of this puzzle. Because the pieces had different chances of being included in the box. Some of these pieces had a chance of only 0.5%.
The FTC cites a case where a user spent 460,000 Korean won to find all 16 pieces. That amounts to €353.
Highest fine ever imposed
Nexon has announced that in the future, they will disclose the percentage chances of obtaining an item – in all games. But apparently, Nexon wants to contest paying the hefty fine.
The issue is whether Nexon should have made it clearer that individual puzzle pieces are so rare. Nexon only stated: The pieces would be distributed randomly.
Under one percent = 0.0005%
Nexon was also held accountable for an action in Counter-Strike Online 2, but compared to the huge fine for Sudden Death, these were just small amounts.
Here it was about,
- that the chances of getting a specific item were at 10% – but they were only at 5%.
- or a company said the chance for an item was “under one percent” and it was 0.0005%
In total, the FTC imposed a fine of 1 billion Korean won, about €760,000 – this is the highest fine ever imposed under the “Korea’s Electronic Commerce Act”.
More on the topic:
What’s inside? Developers must disclose chances in loot boxes – in China
