Summertime sadness
A few days ago, we reported on how Blizzard was caught changing the description of its microtransaction Loot Box system in Overwatch. Turns out, one Battle.net user actually inquired about the legality of the swapped terms. The result doesn’t pan out so well for Blizzard.
User Jax contacted Citizens Advice of Australia, New Zealand, and the UK to get its two cents about the whole issue. The UK branch responded and its answer seems pretty damning for Blizzard.
“Under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 it is a criminal offence to mislead a consumer into a contract with a misleading or false advert,” the e-mail from the Citizens Advice reads. “Your rights are covered by the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.”
Jax was quick to conclude that users in the UK may be entitled to a refund based on this information. It’s not entirely cut and dry, as some other users pointed out that Blizzard may have a viable defense.
User GabeNewell (not our lord and savior Gaben) mentioned, “Blizzard’s lawyers will immediately point at the sales agreement (which you should have read before buying anything) and the judge will throw it out of court.” Reminds me of a certain South Park episode.
There are also a litany of users chiming in and claiming that Jax is wrong. “Why do people think this is illegal? It baffles me,” user Thphlstr proclaims. “You didn’t have to buy the loot crates for this event. When the crates were released they told you on day 1 that you could not buy the items inside with credits.”
I’d be interested in seeing if anyone actually takes Blizzard to court. Most users don’t have an army of highly trained lawyers at their disposal, much like Activision does. There is also the case that this only directly involves the two-week Summer Games Loot Box event.
Still, this could end up being a huge blow to developers and publisher looking to riddle their game with microtransactions if anyone successfully sues Blizzard. You can’t ever escape the watchful eye of the internet, so trying to cover your tracks with reworded descriptions isn’t going to be enough.
Legality of Summer Lootboxes [Battle.net Forums — Thanks, Sebastian]
