As a follow-up to our July 2025 newsletter (link) explaining the newly introduced obligation to designate a domestic agent under the Game Industry Promotion Act (“GIPA”), we would like to inform you of the latest development.
As previously described, the amended GIPA, which introduces foreign game businesses’ obligation to designate a domestic agent, will come into effect on October 23, 2025.
The amended GIPA delegates the criteria for foreign game businesses subject to the domestic agent designation obligation to the Enforcement Decree of the GIPA (“Enforcement Decree”), and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism prepared and finalized the amendment to the Enforcement Decree accordingly. Under the amended Enforcement Decree, foreign game businesses obligated to designate a domestic agent are defined as any person meeting any of the following criteria:
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A person whose total sales for the previous year (or during the previous fiscal year, in the case of a corporation) is at least KRW 1 trillion;
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Sales are not limited to sales generated in Korea or within the game sector, but include total worldwide sales. |
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Total sales are converted into Korean Won based on the average exchange rate for the previous year (available at Seoul Money Brokerage Services (www.smbs.biz)). |
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A person who distributes or provides games installed on mobile devices (limited to those sold in Korea), with an average of at least 1,000 installations per day in the previous year; or
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The scope of this threshold is limited to mobile games. |
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This threshold applies to downloads in Korea only, and if the same game is distributed through multiple app markets, the number of downloads from each app market is aggregated. |
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Regardless of the release or termination date of a game, this threshold refers to cases where the average daily number of downloads in Korea (i.e., the total number of game app downloads from January 1 to December 31 of the previous year, divided by 365 days) is at least 1,000. |
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A person who has been requested by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism to submit a report pursuant to Article 31(2) of the GIPA for causing or being likely to cause an incident that significantly harm the game distribution environment
For your reference, the Game Rating and Administration Committee (“GRAC”) recently sent notices to certain foreign game businesses who appear to meet the criteria requiring the designation of a domestic agent, requesting confirmation as to whether a domestic agent has been appointed. The GRAC is expected to continue to monitor whether foreign game businesses have fulfilled their domestic agent designation obligation after the amended GIPA takes effect.
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