EA Under Criminal Investigation by Belgian Government

[Slottr]

Quote

Belgium's Gaming Commission has opened up a criminal investigation via the Brussels Public Prosecutor's Office, and EA might be faced with going to court.

 

Quote

(EA CEO Andrew) Wilson asserted that EA's games were "developed and implemented ethically and lawfully around the world"

 

Everyone saw this coming from a mile away, but what truly baffles me is that EA is going to try and pass loot boxes as anything but gambling because its rewards don't hold "real world value".

I understand why they are fighting the Belgian Government, but can not see their denial to blatant gambling coming across as a win in any court with these laws.

 

 

Source:

https://hexus.net/gaming/news/industry/122051-belgian-govt-opens-criminal-investigation-ea/

[emosun]

All this loot box/gambling/pay to win/unfinished game/dlc crap is why I stopped playing video games.

I'm sorry is there supposed to be some fun here somewhere? am i suppose to be having fun while i sit at my slot machine computer pumping nickles into it while smoking a cigarette , becuase that what it looks and feels like

[mr moose]

8 hours ago, Slottr said:

 

I understand why they are fighting the Belgian Government, but can not see their denial to blatant gambling coming across as a win in any court with these laws.

 

Because companies are only going to defend their bottom line.   The truth, as they argue it,  is not what they personally believe the court will accept, but what they want to fight for.

 

Cigarette companies argued for along time that smoking doesn't cause cancer, not because they believe it but because not fighting the claim meant it costing them money.

 

The reality is with these companies, that the answer to how to get them to stop doing something that is making them so much money, is not to punish them, but to make it easier to make money doing something else. 

[ScratchCat]

New EA Lawsuit Lootbox! Will it be a fine or will it be a sales ban? Only $1,000,000 (Lawyers not included)

[duncannah]

What stops EA from just not publishing games to Belgium?

[dfsdfgfkjsefoiqzemnd]

Just now, duncannah said:

What stops EA from just not publishing games to Belgium?

They probably expect the income from these lootboxes to be higher than the fines they get.

[Slottr]

5 minutes ago, mr moose said:

--

Should have worded that better, sorry haha. But yeah I know that they know it is gambling. Obviously they're not going to simply cut out one of their largest profit routes quickly and silently.

 

Cigarette company comparison is fantastic, though instead of putting a cancer patient on the box they'll have to put homeless people.

[Wh0_Am_1]

23 minutes ago, Slottr said:

 

 

Everyone saw this coming from a mile away, but what truly baffles me is that EA is going to try and pass loot boxes as anything but gambling because its rewards don't hold "real world value".

I understand why they are fighting the Belgian Government, but can not see their denial to blatant gambling coming across as a win in any court with these laws.

 

 

Source:

https://hexus.net/gaming/news/industry/122051-belgian-govt-opens-criminal-investigation-ea/

Welp peoples, it seems that we are going back to only micro-transactions in games.

[MMKing]

14 minutes ago, mr moose said:

Because companies are only going to defend their bottom line.   The truth, as they argue it,  is not what they personally believe the court will accept, but what they want to fight for.

 

Cigarette companies argued for along time that smoking doesn't cause cancer, not because they believe it but because not fighting the claim meant it costing them money.

 

The reality is with these companies that the answer to how to get them to stop doing something that is making them so much money is not to punish them, but to make it easier to make money doing something else. 

True enough, but i still find it odd that EA opts to keep bringing up the issue over Belgium. Valve and Activision Blizzard seemed happy enough to comply and remove the issue from popular memory as soon as possible. By continuing to fight over the relatively tiny market of Belgium, Activision is effectively reminding the media on a weekly basis that loot boxes, card packs etc is still a hot topic.

 

Then again, if EA gave in to Belgium. The EU could easily just copy the regulations word for word and cite EA's compliance in Belgium should EA try to fight the significantly larger EU market.

 

It's a mess. But in the long run, EA fighting the verdict is good thing for the consumers. On one side we got Valve and Activision complying, and on the other we got EA fighting. The industry is not on the same side on the issue, which is good for the consumers.

[mr moose]

Just now, MMKing said:

True enough, but i still find it odd that EA opts to keep bringing up the issue over Belgium. Valve and Activision Blizzard seemed happy enough to comply and remove the issue from popular memory as soon as possible. By continuing to fight over the relatively tiny market of Belgium, Activision is effectively reminding the media on a weekly basis that loot boxes, card packs etc is still a hot topic.

 

Then again, if EA gave in to Belgium. The EU could easily just copy the regulations word for word and cite EA's compliance in Belgium should EA try to fight the significantly larger EU market.

 

It's a mess. But in the long run, EA fighting the verdict is good thing for the consumers. On one side we got Valve and Activision complying, and on the other we got EA fighting. The industry is not on the same side on the issue, which is good for the consumers.

Yep, I guess that like every legal battle, lawyers are going to have slightly different advice and compile that with fears of widespread adoption of said laws if they don't argue it now in every instance they may be left with no legs to stand on anywhere else.  

[Taf the Ghost]

EA having people go to jail over loot boxes would be so damn funny.

[laminutederire]

52 minutes ago, duncannah said:

What stops EA from just not publishing games to Belgium?

That could trickle down quite fast to not publishing in Europe as a whole for instance?

[Beskamir]

1 hour ago, emosun said:

All this loot box/gambling/pay to win/unfinished game/dlc crap is why I stopped playing video games.

I'm sorry is there supposed to be some fun here somewhere? am i suppose to be having fun while i sit at my slot machine computer pumping nickles into it while smoking a cigarette , becuase that what it looks and feels like

Thankfully there still exist game studios that aren't just trying to squeeze every penny out of their players.

[Lathlaer]

Well, hardly surprising. 

 

Belgium said "get rid of lootboxes or we will criminally prosecute", EA said "bring it", so it's being done. EA is prepared for a knife fight here, I'm curious what the end result will be.

 

2 hours ago, duncannah said:

What stops EA from just not publishing games to Belgium?

Nothing but if they wanted to go that route then they might as well have complied with Belgian demand. I'm guessing they have great confidence in their rhetorics and their lawyers.

[Lathlaer]

2 hours ago, Captain Chaos said:

They probably expect the income from these lootboxes to be higher than the fines they get.

Yeah, considering it's mainly FIFA and that game sells, like, 70-80% in Europe, the stakes are high for them.

[Sakkura]

4 hours ago, duncannah said:

What stops EA from just not publishing games to Belgium?

They would probably have to stop publishing it in the entire EU then.

[Bensemus]

The article linked on the sub reddit I read this on mentioned that Belgium plans to amend their gambling laws to specifically cover loot boxes if EA is successful in arguing their case under the current laws. 

[Carclis]

I don't see any desirable outcome for EA coming out of this case. Belgium authorities don't agree with loot boxes within games, particularly EA and so they should win. If they don't then the laws will probably just be changed to encompass more.

[Vode]

9 hours ago, laminutederire said:

That could trickle down quite fast to not publishing in Europe as a whole for instance?

That's unrealistic. They would publish EU version of games without lootboxes before not publishing at all.

[kilgore_T]

in the real world the Belgium government is much more of a criminal organisation than EA ever could be

[Teddy07]

11 hours ago, emosun said:

All this loot box/gambling/pay to win/unfinished game/dlc crap is why I stopped playing video games.

1

Me too. I simply lost interest due to this shit.

[lewdicrous]

Oh noo..

[laminutederire]

32 minutes ago, Vode said:

That's unrealistic. They would publish EU version of games without lootboxes before not publishing at all.

I'm not sure ea is smart enough to do that. They want to push lootboxes so hard they'd prefer to force their way in the market with lootboxes..

[Kochiha Ichihara]

Not only has this been a long time coming, but good gadzooks does EA need their face punched in some way. This company's been getting away with murder for years and it's taken somebody in the Low Countries questioning a blatant gambling racket to finally do battle with them.

[IAmAndre]

11 hours ago, duncannah said:

What stops EA from just not publishing games to Belgium?

I think that's why Bandai Namco stopped selling some of their games in Beligum.