South Korea has enacted the Game Industry Promotion Act that criminalizes boosting, a paid service that sees high level / high skilled players carry low level / low skill player though matches in competitive games to artificially enhance their rating. This commonly occurs in games including Overwatch, League of Legends and DOTA 2 to name a few. Those found guilty of boosting can face a two year suspended sentence and up to $18,000 in fines.
The KoreaHerald obtained a statement from one of the representatives:
“Many popular games have been suffering from professional businesses specializing in boosting without a concrete way to resolve this issue,” said Rep. Lee Dong-sup of the minor opposition Bareunmirae Party, who had proposed the related bill. “The newly passed revisions will provide immense support to efforts to forge a healthy esports ecosystem in Korea,” he said.
The boosting regulations come as part of a larger law that is intended to provide a variety of protections for the South Korean gaming industry. You can read the full text here.
