First-ever victory against a delayed Kickstarter

[jos]

More than a year after the Washington State Office of the Attorney General filed a consumer protection lawsuit against a Kickstarted game creator who failed to deliver, a state court ruled against the defendant and ordered that $54,851 be paid in civil fines, fees and restitution to backers of the bungled crowdfunding campaign.

this is  the nation's first-ever consumer protection lawsuit involving crowdfunding, and it happens to be over a tabletop game Kickstarter: Asylum Playing Cards.

Washington state will not tolerate crowdfunding theft,” said Ferguson. “If you accept money from consumers, and don’t follow through on your obligations, my office will hold you accountable.”

 

The ruling happened in July but made into news only now...This is a good thing.. now there wont be any fraudsters trying to make quick buck..

 

Source: http://www.polygon.com/2015/9/11/9310945/kickstarter-court-victory-attorney-general-washington-asylum-playing-cards

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/253471/State_court_orders_Kickstarted_game_creator_to_pay_54k_for_failing_to_deliver.php

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2491108,00.asp

http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/13/washington-state-orders-crowdfunding-fraud-penalty/

[Atmos]

frauds will still try to make a quick buck, but just do it outside of the US.

 

And awesome, this will at least mean a slow decline in the amount of frauds done here in the states.

[Enderman]

This makes me happy.

[Kurosaki Isshin]

"If you accept money from consumers, and don’t follow through on your obligations, my office will hold you accountable.”

about time.

[EliasNM]

Well that is a start, now to deal with the rest of them.Took a while but this is progress.

[Bensemus]

What about kickstarters that underestimated the amount of money needed to complete their project?

[2FA]

This was in the news before now, I remember reading about it when the ruling happened.

[Trik'Stari]

And where are they on the fraud investigation over Sarkeesian's kickstarter?

[GoldSrc]

There's still a lot of crap, on kickstarter.

[Briggsy]

It certainly puts the "kick" back in kickstarter. 

[Thony]

Damn, its too late to try that

[Trik'Stari]

People have been waiting almost three years now for McIntosh Sarkeesian to finish those videos.

Wow. That's ridiculous.

[BuckGup]

I bet Burnie Burns and Gus Sarola will thank you as there Coin is amazing

[Commander Llama]

Good.

 

There is, of course, a certain amount of risk that comes with pledging to a crowdfund. But there needs to be some protection against fraudsters that make bullshit crowdfunds and make off with the money.

[CyberneticTitan]

[kuddlesworth9419]

What about kickstarters that underestimated the amount of money needed to complete their project?

Maybe it will make people actually plan and go through these first stages properly instead of just guessing the amount they would need. Always overestimate the amount you need otherwise guess what will happen. It's the same in every other industry. If you underestimate the costs you have to pay up the rest. If you're not OK with that then you shouldn't be doing that to begin with. It's the fairest way to do it.

[xXChaoticSymphonyXx]

"If you accept money from consumers, and don’t follow through on your obligations, my office will hold you accountable.”

 

I wonder where they are on the investigations into the Cable/Internet/Mobile providers then.

[Trik'Stari]

Nobody really notices her these days anyway. It is a matter of months before she fades away into nothing.

Good riddance.

[Misanthrope]

frauds will still try to make a quick buck, but just do it outside of the US.

 

And awesome, this will at least mean a slow decline in the amount of frauds done here in the states.

 

Yeah but you can at least limit yourself to either legit or US based projects.

 

Or even better, you can limit yourself to not being an idiot and not contributing to any kickstarter projects ever.

[Atmos]

Yeah but you can at least limit yourself to either legit or US based projects.

 

Or even better, you can limit yourself to not being an idiot and not contributing to any kickstarter projects ever.

 

I would lie if I said I didn't contribute to Oculus' crowd funding for the first DK... And still have mine in its case on a shelf in my room. But at least that one turned out pretty well, unfortunately it will never see widespread success i think now that Facebook bought it.

[You_are_a_cunt]

'bout time

[LucidMew]

Nobody really notices her these days anyway. It is a matter of months before she fades away into nothing.

 

That's assuming GG doesn't keep falling for her bait and keep making here relevant time and time again.

[Scheer]

Neat, maybe now I can get my money back from the Soap router that never went anywhere... In all honesty, I knew they were promising more than they could deliver so I went for the lowest tier expecting to be disappointed, but I still thought I would get something out of it. Instead the creators just disappeared.

 

I have a feeling we will see a lot more of these popping up now.

[Albatross]

Nice! But hopefully that looney that is trying to sue Cloud Imperium Games doesn't have a similar end.

[ChineseChef]

While this is good and all, it won't change much.  All this means is that if you set out to defraud people and take their money, you can be found guilty.  If you didn't make an effort to get your product to market, you can be found guilty.  But all you have to do is show that you actually tried, and you're fine.  Businesses fail all the time, and kickstarter and similar simply give us more of a glimpse into that.  And the incorrect mindset that you are an investor when you back these projects is part of the problem.