Headquarters of Nexon Co. (image: Yonhap)

SEOUL, Nov 28 (Korea Bizwire) – In a landmark ruling, South Korea’s Supreme Court has upheld a lower court ruling requiring Nexon Korea to partially refund players affected by falsely advertised probability percentages for in-game items.

The Supreme Court’s Third Division rejected Nexon’s appeal on November 28, finalizing a ruling ordering 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 under 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, causing them to be lower than advertised rates. Kim then filed a lawsuit, demanding a refund of 11 million won spent on the game.

While the initial trial was ruled in Nexon’s favor, the Appellate Division of the Suwon District Court last January partially sided with the plaintiff and ordered Nexon to repay about 570,000 won, representing 5% of the amount claimed.

The appeals court characterized Nexon’s actions as “intentional and actively fraudulent conduct that induced and exploited users’ gambling psychology and the sunk cost fallacy.”

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

This marks the first Supreme Court precedent regarding probability manipulation in gaming merchandise, 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 collective dispute resolution proposal and will provide compensation to users who did not request dispute resolution. We will continue to do our best to restore user trust and provide better gaming services.”

Kevin Lee ([email protected])