A pair of Canadians have filed a class action lawsuit against Electronic Arts, alleging that the company’s use of loot boxes violates the country’s Criminal Code.
As The Patch Notes report, the civil action has been instigated by Mark Sutherland, who bought some stuff in Madden, and Shawn Moore, who did likewise in NHL. The suit seeks “damages for unjust enrichment arising from defendants’ operation of an illegal gambling system through the sale of so-called ‘loot boxes’ in popular video games.”
The “illegal” part comes from their belief that loot boxes, which can be bought without knowing what’s inside them, constitute gambling, and that EA doesn’t have the appropriate licence to offer that in Canada.
The suit covers not only Madden and NHL but a ton of other EA titles as well, ranging from mobile games to series like FIFA, Battlefield, Dragon Age and Mass Effect.
The case is awaiting EA’s response, but The Patch Notes — a legal blog — point out that unlike a lot of class action lawsuits, which can be hastily put together and as much about publicity as anything else, “this is not a self-represented litigant filing a nuisance lawsuit, but a well-pleaded claim brought by an experienced legal team who specialises in going after large corporations for stuff like this.”
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