PUBG · NewJeans (Image courtesy of Krafton)
SEJONG, June 16 — South Korea’s antitrust watchdog has imposed penalties on two major online game publishers, Krafton and Com2uS, for misleading players about the odds of winning in-game items—marking another step in a widening regulatory crackdown on deceptive practices in the gaming industry.
The Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) announced Monday that it has fined Krafton, the publisher of PUBG: Battlegrounds, and Com2uS, operator of Starseed: Asnia Trigger, ₩2.5 million ($1,800) each for violating e-commerce laws. Both companies were also ordered to submit concrete plans within 30 days to prevent future violations.
According to the commission, Krafton misrepresented item probabilities between March and June 2024 while selling a chance-based item that let users transform character appearances into members of the popular girl group NewJeans. Players were led to believe they would be guaranteed a win on their fifth attempt, but the actual odds were only 9%.
Krafton also falsely advertised the odds of acquiring certain rare items through a separate exchange feature known as “processing,” claiming drop rates of 0.1414–0.7576% when the true probability was effectively zero for some items.
Similarly, Com2uS was found to have misled consumers about item upgrade rates between March and May 2024. The company claimed a 24% enhancement probability across three items sold as a set, though in reality, only one item had any chance of enhancement—while the others had a 0% chance.
While the KFTC deemed the violations serious, it opted for fines rather than harsher penalties due to the companies’ voluntary corrections and compensation efforts.
Krafton refunded over ₩1.1 billion to some 380,000 players and issued an additional ₩9.8 billion worth of in-game currency. Com2uS, meanwhile, compensated more than 1.55 million users—regardless of purchase history—with virtual assets worth ₩200,000 each, exceeding the original item price.
The enforcement follows a March 2024 revision of South Korea’s Game Industry Act, which mandated full disclosure of probability rates for chance-based items. Since then, the KFTC has investigated six companies. In April 2025, it imposed corrective orders and fines on Gravity (Ragnarok Online) and Wemade (Night Crows), while enforcement procedures are ongoing against Webzen (MU Archangel) and NCSoft (Lineage), with stronger penalties expected.
“We will continue to intensify monitoring of deceptive probability disclosures in gaming and impose strict sanctions where violations are found,” the KFTC said in a statement. “Our enforcement will focus not only on punishment, but also on ensuring meaningful consumer restitution and robust preventive mechanisms.”
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
