Fair Trade Commission to Investigate Whether Game Companies' 'Probability-Based Items' Deceive Consumers
[Asia Economy Reporter Jusangdon Joo] The Fair Trade Commission (FTC) plans to investigate whether game companies are deceiving consumers regarding 'probability-based items.'
On the 7th, an FTC official stated, "We are not yet at the stage of a full-scale investigation, but we will look into whether there are any issues of consumer deception related to probability-based items."
Probability-based items are items obtained in games through a 'gacha' format such as random boxes, and many companies do not disclose the probabilities, leading to significant consumer dissatisfaction. A representative example is the recently released top-tier item 'Sinhwa Weapon' in NCSoft's game 'Lineage2M.' It is known that obtaining this item can cost over 200 million won.
To acquire this weapon, players must collect three types of recipes?'Rare Crafting Recipe,' 'Heroic Crafting Recipe,' and 'Legendary Crafting Recipe'?from random boxes to create the 'Ancient History Book,' which must then be converted. While the game company discloses the probabilities (0.25?2%) of obtaining each recipe from the random boxes, it does not disclose the probability of converting the collected recipes into the 'Ancient History Book.'
Previously, in 2018, the FTC imposed fines on game companies for violating the Electronic Commerce Act related to such probability-based items.
The FTC has stated that if the recent controversies surrounding probability-based items are found to constitute consumer deception, appropriate measures can be taken.
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In 2020, the FTC attempted to revise the product information provision notice to mandate the disclosure of probabilities for probability-based items, but the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism decided to include this requirement in the Game Industry Promotion Act, so the notice revision was not pursued. The law has not yet been amended, and the disclosure of probabilities for probability-based items remains a matter of self-regulation.
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