A bill amending the Game Industry Act moved from committee referral to committee review on 16 September 2025 [sic: 2026-09-16 per source]. The bill would add a new Article 14-2 requiring game business operators — game producers and game distributors — to obtain user consent and take necessary measures to transfer a user's accumulated game-usage records and payment information when an online game service is discontinued or when a contract between a producer and a distributor ends. The bill responds to cases where users have lost access to their usage history and payment data following service shutdowns or contract terminations between developer and publisher, and it remains a pending proposal, not current law — no effective date, threshold, or penalty has been set.
What this means for you
- No action is required yet. The provision is still at the committee-review stage; it has not been enacted, and no effective date or penalty has been attached.
- If you operate or distribute an online game reaching Korean users, note the direction of travel. The bill would place an affirmative, consent-based data-transfer duty on both producers and distributors at the point a service ends or a producer-distributor contract terminates — review your current practices for handling user usage and payment data on service discontinuation or partner-contract exit, so you are not starting from zero if this becomes law.
- Track committee progress. A bill at the review stage can stall, be amended, or advance to a vote; the scope of "necessary measures" and any threshold or penalty will likely be defined later in the process. Re-check before assuming the current draft is final.
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Munteok provides regulatory information, not legal advice.