This undated file photo shows the headquarters of Nexon Co. in the city of Seongnam in Gyeonggi Province. (Image courtesy of Yonhap)
SEOUL, Mar. 11 (Korea Bizwire) –Nexon Korea has initiated legal action against the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), challenging the sanctions imposed by the regulator over its sale of random-chance items in the popular online game MapleStory.
The FTC had previously issued a corrective order and imposed a fine of approximately 11.6 billion won ($9.7 million) in January, accusing Nexon of altering the odds of these items to the detriment of consumers without proper notification or by providing false information.
In response, Nexon recently filed a lawsuit with the Seoul High Court, seeking to overturn the FTC’s order. A company representative stated, “We decided to seek the court’s judgment due to certain aspects we wish to clarify, although we cannot divulge details regarding the lawsuit.”
The FTC had determined that Nexon unjustly modified the probability structure of its paid random-chance items without adequate disclosure or by disseminating misleading information.
The allegations of probability manipulation include changing the weight of potential options, modifying the structure of potential option appearances, altering the chance of potential option grade improvements in MapleStory, and falsely announcing the odds of a Bingo event in Bubble Fighter.
Among these, MapleStory has been the focal point of user complaints. The game allows equipment items to have up to three “potential abilities” in addition to their basic stats.
Since introducing the paid random-chance item “Cube” in 2010, which randomly alters an item’s potential abilities, players have spent significant amounts attempting to obtain items with the best potential abilities, such as triple “Boss Monster Attack Damage Increase” or triple “Ignore Monster Defense” options.
However, the FTC found that Nexon assigned lower weights to popular options and configured the game so that specific combinations of duplicate options, like triple “Boss Monster Attack Damage Increase,” would not appear after the release of the Cube, without informing players of these changes.
Following the FTC’s actions, game users have mobilized collective legal efforts against Nexon. In January, approximately 500 gamers filed a class-action lawsuit for damages against the company.
Additionally, the Korea Consumer Agency has received over 5,000 applications for collective dispute mediation in just 12 days.
Kevin Lee (kevinlee@koreabizwire.com)
