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Game-Time report/Since the middle of last year, news has been circulating that the Korean game industry will introduce a similar domestic agent distribution system to protect the rights and interests of players.
In early February this year, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yue also stated in a public event that a domestic agency system for overseas game companies would be introduced, which was considered to confirm relevant rumors.
Just do it. By the end of March, the Korean Fair Trade Commission recently published a partial draft amendment to the “E-commerce and other Consumer Protection Act” (hereinafter referred to as the “E-commerce Act”). From March 26 to May 7 is the public notice period for the draft for nearly one and a half months.
According to the official website of the Korean Fair Trade Commission, the revision of the e-commerce law is to realize the previous public statement of Yin Xiyue, which is to “improve the rights and interests of game users and build a game industry ecosystem.”
The entire e-commerce amendment mainly includes two parts: first, it mandates that overseas operators who meet certain standards need to designate an agent in South Korea; second, it introduces a consent resolution system.
In Game-Time’s view, South Korea’s revised new law and proposed regulatory measures are meant to “benchmark China’s game regulatory measures.” According to China’s regulatory requirements, overseas games currently operating in the Chinese market must be corporate legal persons with Chinese nationality. , and Chinese capital must hold more than half of the shares.The Korean agents for foreign games required by South Korea’s legislation are mainly divided into two categories. One is sales agents (equivalent to game agency publishing and operating companies in the game industry), and the other is intermediaries (equivalent to game agents in the game industry). For game platform companies), if South Korea’s legislation succeeds, it will have a certain impact on Chinese game companies going overseas to South Korea.
First of all, the agency system was actually promoted and formulated so that the Korean government could have a subject to enforce when protecting the rights and interests of consumers.
The amendment states, “Even overseas merchants without an address or business office in Korea will strengthen their consumer protection obligations as long as their sales, number of users, etc. exceed certain standards, and (under the guidance of the Fair Trade Commission ) Mandatory appointment of domestic agents.”
“Domestic agents in South Korea are basically the subject of investigation of illegal activities and the subject of submission of relevant materials and items, as well as the recipient of documents. Furthermore, depending on whether the merchant is a communications seller or a communications sales intermediary, they will respectively fulfill the consumer protection requirements stipulated in the E-Commerce Act. obligations, such as handling consumer complaints and disputes.”
In order to ensure that the prevention and protection measures of relevant laws can be effectively promoted after the interests of consumers are damaged, the amendment to the Korean E-commerce Law also stipulates that on the one hand, only entities with actual addresses and business premises in South Korea can act as agents, and also stipulates that if If agents refuse to perform their duties, they will be subject to relevant corrective measures and fines as illegal entities.
Different obligations of different agents (distributors or intermediaries)
The Korean Fair Trade Commission stated that from 2021 to 2023, the amount of goods purchased directly by Korean users from overseas merchants has increased from 510 million won (approximately 2.7 million yuan) to 680 million won (approximately 3.6 million yuan), while the same Time, the number of related dispute consultation cases received by the Korean Consumer Center has also increased from 1,952 in 2021 to 4,769 in 2023.
As for the consent resolution system, it is intended to solve the problem of litigation difficulties for ordinary consumers.
In response to this, the Korea Fair Trade Commission wrote in the announcement, “Although consumer fraud often affects a wide range of areas, from the standpoint of individual consumers, it is difficult to obtain relief through litigation. Even if ordinary consumers because of merchants If their behavior is harmed, they will often give up filing lawsuits themselves.”
“In order to solve these problems and enable consumers to effectively obtain relief for their respective small losses, it is planned to introduce a consent resolution system into the e-commerce law in the future.”
According to the official introduction, South Korea’s consent resolution system this time simply means that when relevant consumer fraud occurs, game companies can apply for resolution, and at this time the Fair Trade Commission will based on the details of the case, the reasonable rights and interests of consumers, etc. Propose a certain compensation plan.
When the game company adopts this plan, consumers can obtain compensation directly from the game company without going through litigation procedures.
And the system also stipulates that when an operator fails to implement the compensation plan for a considerable period of time without justifiable reasons, the Korean Fair Trade Commission will impose an enforcement fee (not exceeding 2 million won per day, approximately RMB 10,000), Until the consent resolution is enforced or revoked to prevent the possibility of abuse of the system.
According to the official announcement, the amendment to the bill will still need to go through the Korean Legal Affairs Office, regulatory review, State Council and other procedures, but it is expected that the revision of the relevant laws will be completed within this year.
