The Korea Fair Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating game developer Nexon following problems with how paid items worked in the mobile game MapleStory Idle. Officials from the FTC’s Seoul office recently visited Nexon’s headquarters to collect information about the game’s paid item sales and how probabilities were shown to players.

The investigation focuses on a feature in MapleStory Idle where players could spend real money on items to reset their character stats. The game told players they had a certain chance of getting the best possible result, but complaints emerged that these maximum values didn’t actually appear for some time period, even though the game said they could.

Nexon admitted to the error late last month and promised to give full refunds to all players who spent money on MapleStory Idle since the game launched. However, the FTC is conducting its own review to see if any laws were broken, separate from Nexon’s refund plan.

The FTC is looking at whether the game violated e-commerce laws, which ban companies from giving consumers false information or using misleading practices in transactions. Investigators are checking if there was a difference between the probabilities Nexon disclosed and how the game actually worked, and whether Nexon gave players accurate information after discovering the error.

This isn’t Nexon’s first time facing FTC action over probability-related issues. In 2024, the company was ordered to pay 11.6 billion won (around $8 million) in penalties for false and deceptive practices related to probability-based items in the main MapleStory MMO game. That penalty was the largest ever given for an e-commerce law violation at the time.