The Korea Communications Commission on Thursday fined Nexon Korea 771 million won ($660,880) for passing on private user information to a client firm without users’ consent.

The state media regulator agreed in a committee’s general meeting that the country’s biggest game firm pay the amount for not obtaining users’ permission in providing its short message service with Mobilians from 2006-2010.

“During the five years, it has been discovered that the company did not get the permission from owners of more than 1.83 million mobile phone numbers involving the matter,” said Park Jae-moon, director-general of the network policy division at the KCC.

The fine is the highest that can be given to a company that has passed on users’ personal information without their consent, according to committee officials. A firm can be fined between 539 billion won and 771 billion won for such misconduct.

A Nexon official said the company had no comment on the issue.

This is the first time the regulator has fined on the gaming company for breaking the country’s personal information law.

Commissioners debated on whether it was appropriate to make the decision with another investigation in progress involving Nexon’s massive leak of users’ private data, but agreed swift action was needed for user protection.

“We will urge them to take a leading role in the protection of users’ private data through this case,” said KCC commissioner Shin Yong-sub.

On another front, Nexon is also currently under investigation for its massive leak of personal information of 13.2 million registered users of the firm’s massively multiplayer online role-playing game “Maple Story.”

The case, which has been sent to the prosecution, was discovered in November last year after the company discovered its backup server had been hacked.

By Cho Ji-hyun (sharon@heraldcorp.com)