Is EA Ready to Go to Court in Belgium Over Lootboxes? - MMORPG.com News

SBFord

Is EA Ready to Go to Court in Belgium Over Lootboxes? - MMORPG.com News

A Belgian news outlet is reporting that EA may be being investigated by Belgian court officials as the company has yet to remove loot boxes from its games in the country. Earlier this year, the Belgian Gaming Commission found that loot boxes violate national regulations against gambling. While other companies have removed loot boxes from their games (i.e. Blizzard Valve and 2K Games), EA has yet to comply.

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Xingbairong

Pretty sure Belgium will lose if this goes to court, no offense, but I'm confident that EA have better lawyers than Belgium(not the country as a whole, but those that work for the government) and they have already gone through all possible scenarios and are certain that they can win.

JeffSpicoli

EA Has just gone full renegade lol 

Keller

@SBFord it's a belgian news agency, not dutch. It's a bit confusing as they write in Dutch. Belgium is a multilingualistic country. Majority of the population speaks French or (and) Dutch. Plus German is also an official language, however it's spoken by a very small portion of the population.

kitarad

Xingbairong said:

Pretty sure Belgium will lose if this goes to court, no offense, but I'm confident that EA have better lawyers than Belgium(not the country as a whole, but those that work for the government) and they have already gone through all possible scenarios and are certain that they can win.

That depends on how the legislation has been crafted. If it is done well it can be easy to fall foul of it and easier still to argue that EA has broken it.

Slapshot1188

Please do go to court. The more publicity the better!

NorseGod

Hope they go bust.

Aeander

I hope this ends up with a Belgian-waffle shaped shoeprint in Andrew Wilson's colon.

Albatroes

Wasn't Activision-Blizzard crafty with overwatch in another region (I think it was China) regarding loot boxes? They gave the loot boxes away for free but sold the keys or something like that, didn't they?

gervaise1

Keller said:

@SBFord it's a belgian news agency, not dutch. It's a bit confusing as they write in Dutch. Belgium is a multilingualistic country. Majority of the population speaks French or (and) Dutch. Plus German is also an official language, however it's spoken by a very small portion of the population.

How do you say that in Flemish

gervaise1

Xingbairong said:

Pretty sure Belgium will lose if this goes to court, no offense, but I'm confident that EA have better lawyers than Belgium(not the country as a whole, but those that work for the government) and they have already gone through all possible scenarios and are certain that they can win.

Belgium is not the US - no jury to sway just judges who will apply the law. So - as @kitarad said it will come down to how the law is crafted.  

DeadSpock

EA is one of many companies doing this it feels like there’s a highway full of speeding cars but the cop only pulls me over.

laserit

The honorable thing to do is to stop selling the things in Belgium and then challenge the law in court.

Respect a countries laws

Screw you EA

GeezerGamer

DeadSpock said:

EA is one of many companies doing this it feels like there’s a highway full of speeding cars but the cop only pulls me over.

But, you were speeding in the flashiest car purchased with funds obtained by exploiting others.

El-Hefe

Albatroes said:

Wasn't Activision-Blizzard crafty with overwatch in another region (I think it was China) regarding loot boxes? They gave the loot boxes away for free but sold the keys or something like that, didn't they?

I think blizzard just had to provide the odds for the boxes.  Like x box has 5% chance to contain x gear.  But I'm sure Belgium law is different than china.

Ungood

laserit said:

The honorable thing to do is to stop selling the things in Belgium and then challenge the law in court.

Respect a countries laws

Screw you EA

I agree, if I was in charge of EA, I'd suspend Service to any game that had Loot Boxes to anyone in Belgium until the issue was resolved, IE: Indefinitely until Belgium let us sell Loot Boxes.

I would also withhold any future sales to that country until the issue was resolved.

After all, there are about the same number of people in the entire country of Belgium as there are in the City of New York.

I could afford to not do business there.

evolgrinz

Ungood said:

laserit said:

The honorable thing to do is to stop selling the things in Belgium and then challenge the law in court.



Respect a countries laws



Screw you EA

I agree, if I was in charge of EA, I'd suspend Service to any game that had Loot Boxes to anyone in Belgium until the issue was resolved, IE: Indefinitely until Belgium let us sell Loot Boxes.

I would also withhold any future sales to that country until the issue was resolved.

After all, there are about the same number of people in the entire country of Belgium as there are in the City of New York.

I could afford to not do business there.

Yeah, Belgium isn't that big, but EA is looking further, like what if all of EU would ban lootboxes? That will be a huge market gone. So they start the fight now.
But I think EA is making a big mistake. Even if they win the fight about lootboxes. Belgium could just ban their entire game to be sold in the country instead.

Vrika

I think the large questions here are how long the case takes and whether EA is allowed to continue selling lootboxes while it's being argued. If they can bog it down to court system for something like 5 years, then it doesn't really matter even if they eventually lose and are forbidden from selling lootboxes in Fifa 2018 from 2023 onwards.

Xingbairong

gervaise1 said:

Xingbairong said:

Pretty sure Belgium will lose if this goes to court, no offense, but I'm confident that EA have better lawyers than Belgium(not the country as a whole, but those that work for the government) and they have already gone through all possible scenarios and are certain that they can win.

Belgium is not the US - no jury to sway just judges who will apply the law. So - as @kitarad said it will come down to how the law is crafted.  

Pretty sure that as things are now Belgium stands no chance. Making loot boxes count as gambling might've passed as a law in Belgium, but as EA have already responded with their twisted logic they don't count them as gambling and I'm pretty sure that no one will be able to win a case against EA saying that certain loot from lootboxes is worth more than other because the loot is not meant to be sold for real money.

Also I'm not aware of the laws in the US, but pretty sure in this type of cases there is no jury, only both sides and the judge.

P.S. Btw all the people that think it's the "right" thing to do to stop selling loot boxes there... From ethical stand point, YES it is, however if companies don't respond to this there are high chances that a lot of countries will follow and while only Belgium having this law might have almost no lasting effect on the overall income of the companies in the long run if more companies follow their steps... You can guess the end result... millions and possibly billions of potential income will disappear, so they really don't have a choice. I'm a Blizzard fan, but in my eyes they tried to play the "ethical" company and let other major companies do the fight for them, so that they don't ruin their image, because it was obvious that major companies won't take this laying down.

craftseeker

Xingbairong said:

gervaise1 said:

Xingbairong said:

Pretty sure Belgium will lose if this goes to court, no offense, but I'm confident that EA have better lawyers than Belgium(not the country as a whole, but those that work for the government) and they have already gone through all possible scenarios and are certain that they can win.

Belgium is not the US - no jury to sway just judges who will apply the law. So - as @kitarad said it will come down to how the law is crafted.  

Pretty sure that as things are now Belgium stands no chance. Making loot boxes count as gambling might've passed as a law in Belgium, but as EA have already responded with their twisted logic they don't count them as gambling and I'm pretty sure that no one will be able to win a case against EA saying that certain loot from lootboxes is worth more than other because the loot is not meant to be sold for real money.

Also I'm not aware of the laws in the US, but pretty sure in this type of cases there is no jury, only both sides and the judge.

P.S. Btw all the people that think it's the "right" thing to do to stop selling loot boxes there... From ethical stand point, YES it is, however if companies don't respond to this there are high chances that a lot of countries will follow and while only Belgium having this law might have almost no lasting effect on the overall income of the companies in the long run if more companies follow their steps... You can guess the end result... millions and possibly billions of potential income will disappear, so they really don't have a choice. I'm a Blizzard fan, but in my eyes they tried to play the "ethical" company and let other major companies do the fight for them, so that they don't ruin their image, because it was obvious that major companies won't take this laying down.

WTF are you saying?
Belgian law applies in Belgium. A case in Belgium is going to be decided in a Belgian court.

Renoaku

I disagree it is gambling as welll regardless of Cash Payouts, anything that involves chance is "Gambling" maybe not in a Casino type which has Real World Payouts but any type of asset including digital assets such as clothing or cosmetics is gambling, llet alone if you can even resell those for in game currency.

SplitStream13

They probably too busy managing Battlefield V's shitshow and sorta missed the new law

Scot

These guys lived through and eventually saw of the Nazi's, not even EA is that much of a big bad wolf.

MaxBacon

Specific country regulations won't cause a dent on EA.

What it needs is that for EU itself do pass a regulation on this that will be at place in all the member countries and that alone already sets it in stone.

Mensur

Xingbairong said:

Pretty sure Belgium will lose if this goes to court, no offense, but I'm confident that EA have better lawyers than Belgium(not the country as a whole, but those that work for the government) and they have already gone through all possible scenarios and are certain that they can win.

Dafuq you talking about?

ConstantineMerus

Renoaku said:

I disagree it is gambling as welll regardless of Cash Payouts, anything that involves chance is "Gambling" maybe not in a Casino type which has Real World Payouts but any type of asset including digital assets such as clothing or cosmetics is gambling, llet alone if you can even resell those for in game currency.

Is that your personal opinion or you got that definition from somewhere?

Because by that definition loot drops from mobs and bosses would also be gambling.