Supreme Court orders gaming companies to refund players over manipulated item quotas

Nexon Co. Headquarters (Image: Yonhap)

SEOUL, November 28 (Korea Bizwire) – In a landmark decision, South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling requiring Nexon Korea to provide partial refunds to players who were affected by falsely advertised probability rates for in-game items.

The Third Chamber of the Supreme Court rejected Nexon’s appeal on November 28, finalizing a ruling requiring the company to refund 5% of purchases made by MapleStory player Kim Jun-sung, who filed the lawsuit. The court found that Nexon’s grounds of appeal did not meet the statutory requirements of the Small Claims Trial Act.

The case arose in 2021 when evidence emerged that Nexon had manipulated equipment improvement success rates using paid, probability-based items called Cubes and set them lower than advertised prices. Kim then filed a lawsuit demanding a refund of 11 million won spent on the game.

While the first case was decided in favor of Nexon, the Appellate Division of the Suwon District Court last January partially sided with the plaintiff and ordered Nexon to refund about 570,000 won, equivalent to 5% of the claimed amount.

The appeals court called Nexon’s actions “intentional and active fraudulent conduct that created and exploited users’ gaming psychology and sunk cost fallacy.”

The court limited the refund to 5% of the claimed amount, taking into account factors such as the plaintiff’s multiple changes to the claimed amount and the continued purchase of Cube items during the litigation.

This is the Supreme Court’s first precedent regarding probability manipulation in gambling items, although the final ruling did not specifically address the legal principles of transactions between Nexon and the plaintiff.

A Nexon representative stated: “We have accepted the Korea Consumer Agency’s proposal to arbitrate collective disputes and will provide compensation to users who have not requested arbitration.” We will continue to do our best to restore user confidence and better gaming -Provide services.”

Kevin Lee ([email protected])