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Norway: Nintendo And Others Reported For Breaching European Consumer Law

You may remember that Nintendo has previously been reported for breaching consumer law due to their stance of not allowing gamers to cancel their pre-orders on the eShop. They weren’t the only company as Sony, EA and Valve were also reported. Games Industry has detailed a new formal complaint against all our of these video game behemoths by the Norwegian Consumer Council.

“The NCC says it previously wrote to Nintendo asking for the platform holder to change its practices and comply with the rules. This led to nowhere however, and the NCC is now filing a formal complaint against all four companies.”

Source

33 thoughts on “Norway: Nintendo And Others Reported For Breaching European Consumer Law”

    1. With all due respect, Commander. Nintendo has acted like a little child in this matter. They are clearly the one breaking the law here, and trying to avoid the bullet all the time.

      1. Vi kan lagen.
        Men med tanke på att det klart och tydligt står att man går med på att avsäga sig ångerrätten i och med köpet (åtminstone i Nintendos fall), så är det inte detsamma som att kunder skulle ha blivit lurade.

        Jag skulle i sådant fall vilja argumentera att ett påskrivet köpekontrakt gäller.

        Om det nu inte skulle vara fallet, så är det min mening att lagen behöver komplimenteras med ett undantag…

      2. My last paragraph of my first reply still stands; if that is the case the law clearly needs an exception for certain products.
        Especially digital purchases.

        While I am aware that Valve via Steam allows some kind of refund system, I would argue that some of these console companies have an exception not found there.
        Which is; currency systems.

        While it is possible that Nintendo is dictated by law to refund preorders before the future, I am not so sure that people can get anything in return other than currency in their eShop wallets.

        Those are clearly stated (both in Nintendo’s case and SONY’s) not to be reexchanged back into real money.

        1. EShop currency could be a solution the court finds sufficient, but in my interpretation of the law, this isn’t a sufficient solution because it’s stated that you can cancel any purchase as you please, as long as you haven’t enjoyed/consumed your product yet. By giving eShop currency Nintendo is forcing you to buy something from them(or don’t buy and they still got your cash). But you never know what happens in law really before the judgement has been passed by the Court.

          I don’t see how it’s pro-consumer to let Nintendo keep your money as eShop currency if you don’t want it though. And Nintendo doesn’t care about European law either way. They got one of the biggest fines in history for grotesque pricefixing for 15+- years ago, and they still haven’t paid it. They’ve sickens me sometimes, and in my opinion they don’t have a strong case here neither.

          Og forresten, du kan godt skrive svensk om du ønsker det :P

          1. Indeed, in that sense we will have to wait and see how it unfolds.

            I tend to keep it in English if I want to reach to the broader public on this website.
            Men när jag vill skriva någonting längre och mera utförligt till en av mina Skandinaviska medmänniskor så är det en trevlig omväxling. Så detsamma, om du önskar skriva på Norska.
            Languages are meant to be used, and can express nuance in a array of ways.

            Som avslutning vill jag självklart tillägga att ingen vill att Nintendo ska ha ett ickekundvänligt eller lagbrytande kontraktsunderlag. Det är synd att så är fallet, men det hörde du inte från mig…
            Heter man Enforcer så får man hålla ju hålla fasaden intakt, inte sant?

            In the end Nintendo will find their way and it will be right, by definition or by force…

            1. Jeg forstår at man må holde fasaden. Det er jo bare godt ment, og det er sånn det burde være. For i slutten av dagen, så er Nintendo det beste spillselskapet noensinne.

  1. Odd I’ve never heard of such a thing here in the US. Obviously you can at anytime cancel your pre order that you did in person or so. But digitally? I dont think that’s a thing here.

        1. Yeah, well, you can’t cancel a pre-order, you got to try it first i think. I tried to cancel Deus Ex, and that didn’t work. I’ll think Valve could avoid jugdement with it’s 2 hours rule though.

  2. The fact that Nintendo consumers are allowed to pre-load and play their digital pre-orders early means they are already able to use that purchased product days or weeks ahead of release date, if they do get forced to provide refunds then their only optionto this solution is to deny Europe that privilege which is a possible outcome in this case.

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