LINE to make up for breaking payment laws – report - Mobile World Live

LINE to make up for breaking payment laws – report

19 MAY 2016

LINE was found to have broken rules related to payment tokens used in an online game, Reuters reported.

The Kanto Local Finance Bureau said the tokens are a prepaid form of payment, and funds collected must be reported. Companies with unused deposits of more than JPY10 million ($91,500) made by customers must “park” half of the amount with a division of the justice ministry, in accordance with Japanese law.

LINE apparently did not do so because it did not consider the tokens a currency, and hence did not believe the deposit needed to be reported.

At the end of March, the shortfall totaled around JPY12.5 billion. LINE spokesman Icho Saito said: “We will respond in good faith to the Bureau’s instructions”.

Last month regulators raided LINE’s offices as part of a routine investigation, and it is possible they were looking into how customer’s money for tokens is handled.

In March it was reported that LINE is mulling a $2 billion-$3 billion initial public offering that could take place before the summer.

According to App Annie, LINE owns the three top-grossing apps of all time (LINE, LINE Play and LINE Manga), “fueled primarily by revenue in Japan”.

Author

Saleha Riaz

Saleha joined Mobile World Live in October 2014 as a reporter and works across all e-newsletters - creating content, writing blogs and reports as well as conducting feature interviews...More

Read more

Related

Tags