Abstract:
Article 18 of the Measures for the Administration of Online Games (Draft Exposure Draft) proposes the prohibition of induced rewards, a practice that is not legitimate. Induced rewards in online games mainly include usage rewards for increasing users' time involvement and consumption rewards for increasing operators' revenue. Induced rewards exploit the limited rationality of the user, and through the formation of participation habits, promote behavioural changes, and confuse consumption evaluation to achieve the purpose of increasing user participation and facilitating transactions. The scope of the right to freedom of business entitled by online game operators includes the freedom to independently set up rewards for business matters, and the restriction on setting up rewards for online games is reserved by law, and the prohibition of induced rewards lacks the basis of the supreme law and does not satisfy the principle of proportionality of the restriction of rights by administrative means. The reward rules and reward content of the online games screen are an offer from the operator to the user, and the user's usage or consumption conduct constitutes a commitment to form a network service contract containing rewards between the parties. The value of the reward should not exceed the legal maximum prize amount for the sale of prizes. The offering of rewards by the operator that fulfil this prerequisite is not prohibited by competition law, and contracts involving such rewards do not violate mandatory provisions and public order and morals.