Operating Game Centers Charging Money for Free Games... Supreme Court Rules "Violation of Game Industry Act"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that connecting a free mobile game to an arcade game machine and operating it for a fee is illegal. The reason is that changes in the payment system have significant implications for rating classification.

On the 28th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice Oh Kyungmi) overturned the lower court's acquittal in the appeal trial of Mr. A, who was charged with violating the Game Industry Promotion Act, and remanded the case to the Daejeon District Court.

In May 2018, Mr. A operated a game center and installed a free mobile game on a platform connected to 100 tablet PCs and 100 arcade machines. In this process, Mr. A designed the system to operate only when cash was inserted and charged a usage fee of 10,000 won per 3 minutes.

The first trial sentenced Mr. A to 10 months in prison, considering that he had a prior record of punishment for similar crimes and had been cracked down on for violating the Game Industry Act, yet moved the location to open a game center and even increased the number of game machines.

The second trial court viewed the case differently. It judged that it was difficult to see that Mr. A provided a game different from the one that received the rating classification and acquitted him entirely. The court explained, "Mr. A installed the game on tablet PCs, a type of mobile device, and made the game appearance look like an arcade game, so it is not illegal."

However, the Supreme Court ruled that Mr. A did violate the Game Industry Act, overturned the lower court's acquittal, and ordered a retrial. The Supreme Court stated, "Even if the defendant did not change the content of the game itself, providing a free mobile game rated as such in the form of a paid arcade game is reasonably considered an act of offering a game with content different from the rated content under the Game Industry Act."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.