Europe is definitely not happy with Nintendo and other gaming companies. The Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) has filed a lawsuit against the pre-order policies of the Nintendo eShop. The reason for this is because, according to the NCC, Nintendo has been violating European consumer protection laws.
The War Against Nintendo’s Unethical Policies
The NCC has decided to take Valve, Nintendo, Sony and, Electronic Arts to court for violation of European law. After a thorough investigation, most of these companies ended up free of all charges. However, Nintendo didn’t get off the hook. The NCC made a report to the German Consumer Protection Authority (VZBV) afterward.
The Nintendo eShop doesn’t allow for cancellations or refunds of titles that have been pre-loaded and the Norwegian Consumer Council feels that the policy breaks European law. Namely, the “Right of Withdrawal” which allows consumers to refund a purchase from the moment they make it until 14 days after receiving the product.
The NCC firmly believes that gamers should have a right to make a decision of canceling the pre-order for a game. According to a statement made by the director of digital services, Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad. “Digital products and services such as digital games for PCs and consoles do not exist in a lawless vacuum.”
As such, they will be taking Nintendo straight to court over the course of the following 3 to 4 weeks. However, we might have to wait a while to know the results of the lawsuit as verdicts could take up to a year to be made.
Do you think Nintendo should have a refund policy for pre-orders? What do you think about the refund policies offered by PS Store, Steam and Origin? Do you think Europe will win the lawsuit? While all of this is happening, a recent report has stated that the Nintendo Switch is the fastest selling console of this generation, you can read about it here.