Culture Ministry Announces Legislative Notice for Amendment Mandating Domestic Agents for Overseas Game Companies

Amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the Game Industry Act
to Take Effect on October 23

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced on April 24 that it will conduct a legislative notice for the amendment to the Enforcement Decree of the "Game Industry Promotion Act" (Game Industry Act), which includes key provisions such as mandatory designation of domestic agents for certain overseas game companies, from April 24 to June 4.

On October 22 of last year, the Ministry amended the Game Industry Act to require overseas game companies above a certain size to designate a domestic agent. The purpose is to enable domestic game users to conveniently contact overseas game companies without language barriers and to strengthen supervision and management in cases where overseas companies violate domestic game distribution regulations.

This amendment to the Enforcement Decree follows the revision of the Game Industry Act and sets forth criteria for the designated targets as delegated by the law. Based on research and feedback from the domestic and international gaming industry, the amendment was prepared by comprehensively considering the following: ① ensuring that game companies distributing or providing popular games with a large number of domestic users are included, ② limiting the requirement to companies large enough to bear the costs associated with appointing a domestic agent, and ③ aligning the criteria with those of similar legislative cases regarding domestic agent designation systems.

According to the amendment, game distributors or providers without an address or place of business in Korea must designate a domestic agent. However, those who distribute games or provide game services via information and communications networks under an intermediary contract with a game-related business operator are excluded.

Overseas game companies subject to the agent designation requirement are those that meet any one of the following three criteria: ▲ companies with annual sales of 1 trillion won or more in the previous year (or previous fiscal year for corporations), ▲ companies that distribute or provide games with an average monthly number of domestic users of 100,000 or more over the three months preceding the end of the previous year (for games with multiple forms of provision, the numbers are aggregated), or ▲ companies recognized by the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism as requiring designation due to the occurrence or potential occurrence of incidents or accidents causing significant harm to game users. Overseas game companies that violate the agent designation obligation will be subject to a fine of up to 20 million won.

To ensure overseas game companies have sufficient preparation time, the Ministry is issuing the legislative notice about six months before the system takes effect on October 23, and will distribute both Korean and English versions of the "Guide to the Domestic Agent Designation System under the Game Industry Act." The Ministry will then collect additional opinions through the legislative notice, conduct regulatory and legal reviews, finalize and promulgate the amendment, and individually notify overseas game companies subject to the designation obligation.

A Ministry policy official stated, "Once the 'Overseas Game Company Domestic Agent Designation System' is implemented, we expect it will help establish order in the domestic game distribution market, strengthen user protection, and ease reverse discrimination against domestic game companies. We will make every effort to ensure that overseas game companies subject to the designation obligation comply and that the system is operated effectively."

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