Widespread non-compliance found in loot box advertising disclosure rules in the UK and South Korea

A new study has found overwhelming (90%+) non-compliance with mandatory advertising disclosure requirements for gambling-like loot boxes in video games, raising concerns about consumer protection enforcement in both the United Kingdom and South Korea.

Loot boxes, a form of randomized in-game reward purchasable with real money, have sparked international debate due to their similarities to gambling and their potential to exploit vulnerable players, especially children. In response, multiple jurisdictions have introduced rules requiring game companies to clearly disclose the presence of loot boxes in advertisements.

Using Meta’s publicly available social media advertising repository, researchers conducted a comprehensive review of 2,358 advertisements from more than 100 popular mobile, console, and PC games known to contain loot boxes.

The findings, published in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions, are stark:

• Only 8.4% of U.K. ads and 7.6% of South Korean ads disclosed the presence of loot boxes.
• Of those, 71.4% of U.K. disclosures and 44.9% of Korean disclosures were not reasonably visually prominent, as required by regulation.
• This means the true compliance rates drop to just 2.4% in the U.K. and 4.2% in South Korea.

In the U.K., these low compliance rates represent a clear failure by companies to meet industry self-regulation standards (set by Ukie), advertising regulations, and consumer protection law. Multiple regulatory bodies—including the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA)—share responsibility for enforcement. The report calls on these bodies to take more proactive enforcement action, including providing clear compliance guidance, especially to international companies advertising in the U.K. market.

The research also highlights concerning behavior from major Europe-based gaming companies that are well aware of the disclosure rules but continue to evade compliance. Some have gone as far as deliberately obscuring required disclosure messages, raising serious questions about corporate responsibility and legal compliance.

In South Korea, while the Game Rating and Administration Committee (GRAC) has actively enforced probability disclosure requirements, it has not enforced the required presence disclosures—a gap that urgently needs attention. As of March 2024, South Korean regulations explicitly require loot box disclosure language to appear in Korean, using the phrase ‘확률형 아이템 포함’ (translated: “Includes probabilistic items”). Alternative wording does not meet the legal standard.

Historical context

The international push for loot box advertising transparency began in earnest in September 2021, when the U.K.’s Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) issued guidance on in-game purchase advertising. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has since enforced this guidance on multiple occasions following formal complaints—including a notable 2023 ruling against Electronic Arts (EA).

In December 2021, the European Commission clarified that clear disclosure of loot box presence is already required under pre-existing EU consumer law—provisions that remain substantively part of U.K. law post-Brexit. Enforcement actions followed, including a 2025 ruling by the Dutch advertising regulator, Stichting Reclame Code, confirming that EU consumer law requires such disclosures.

The researchers urge regulators in both the U.K. and South Korea to step up enforcement and for gaming companies—particularly large multinational publishers—to urgently review their advertising practices.