Users should be alert to payments for commercial items
while playing mobile games installed free of charge

With the rapidly growing popularity of mobile games which anyone can access anywhere, anytime with smart phones, more and more parents are being exposed to huge bills for online game items which their under-age children have bought from mobile game operators - these bills usually amount to hundreds of thousands of won per month. Simply playing mobile games is free but, in many cases, the items or cash used in the games have to be paid for, something which users should be alert to.

The Korea Consumer Agency (KCA) announced that the number of consumer counseling regarding mobile games increased from 105 cases in 2011 to 151 (or 43.8%) in 2012. The KCA received 300 reports by October of this year, i.e. 2.5 times more than the previous year (120 cases).

An analysis of 109 consumer redress cases received by the KCA for a two-year ten-month period, from January  2011 to October 2013, revealed that the biggest loss arose from 'payments by minors without the consent of their parents,' which stood at 66.1% or 72 cases. This was followed by 9 cases (8.3%) of 'service failures,' 8 cases (7.3%) of 'uninformed payment,' 6 cases (5.5%) of 'payment errors,' refusal to revoke subscriptions' and 'failure to feed items,' respectively, 5 cases (4.6%).

The review of 106 cases with the payment amounts identified revealed a mean loss of 298,387 won, with 8 cases of damage exceeding 1.0 million won; the greatest damage was about 2.3 million won.

In particular, in 61 cases which were paid and whose app markets could be identified, 'Google Play' accounted for the majority, 75.4% (46 cases), which might have been driven by the fact that this app does not authenticate the user with either an ID or Password.

To remedy this, the KCA recommended that users make sure to check the service rate when downloading a game or buying an item to avoid incurring any loss. It also emphasized the importance of setting a Password to prevent under-age children from using such apps or making undue payments in an app market. The KCA also advised that, when it comes to a game item that hasn't been used yet, it is still possible to revoke the subscription within 7 days of purchase, and, if the service provider violates this regulation, to contact 1372 Consumer Counseling Center or the KCA for possible solutions.