Deceiving Consumers with False Random Item Probabilities... Webzen Hit with Heavy Fine

Game company Webzen has been found to have misrepresented or concealed the probabilities of paid items in its mobile game "MU Archangel," resulting in sanctions from the competition authorities.

On November 30, the Fair Trade Commission announced that it had decided to issue a corrective order to Webzen and impose a fine of 158 million won for violating the Electronic Commerce Act.

The Fair Trade Commission's main finding is that Webzen lured consumers through deceptive practices, such as misrepresenting, concealing, or omitting the probability of obtaining paid random items.

The items subject to the Fair Trade Commission's sanctions include three types: Set Treasure Draw Ticket, Festival Roulette Draw Ticket, and Earth Dragon's Treasure Draw Ticket.

'Probability of Obtaining the "Liberation Crystal" Falsified and Deceptive Notification Details (Source: Fair Trade Commission)'

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Webzen failed to disclose that users could not obtain rare components from these items at all until they had purchased (drawn) each item a certain number of times-ranging from a minimum of 51 to a maximum of 150 times, depending on the item.

The Fair Trade Commission noted that although Webzen voluntarily corrected the violation and took compensation measures such as partially refunding the purchase price to consumers who bought random items, the proportion of game users who actually received compensation was less than 5% (860 people), meaning that consumer damage was virtually not remedied.

Jeon Sanghun, Director of the Special Investigation Team at the Fair Trade Commission, explained, "We determined that corrective measures alone under the Electronic Commerce Act could not compensate consumers, so we imposed a fine in lieu of a business suspension."

The Fair Trade Commission stated, "This measure is significant in that it widely informs the market that when a game company operating as a mail-order business fails to properly compensate consumers for damages caused by its own legal violations, it may face not only corrective orders and penalties but also heavier sanctions such as fines. This is intended to raise awareness among businesses about the seriousness of legal violations."

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