Another Lawsuit Against EA; Ultimate Team in FIFA and Madden is Gambling
Electronic Arts has been sued in California for FIFA and Madden Ultimate Team packages. According to the plaintiff, these lootboxes are nothing but a game of chance, an example of gambling, which is illegal in this state.
Are lootboxes gambling? If we were to take into the decisions of countries from all over the world, it would be difficult to a final judgment. However, more and more people are in favor of such a classification of popular boxes with random contents. For example, in California, a class action lawsuit was filed against Electronic Arts for Ultimate Team packages in theMadden series. The document was issued on behalf of more than 100 people demanding a lawsuit and payment of $5 million in damages (via Video Games Chronicle).
Speaking on behalf of the "victims", Kevin Ramirez stated that Electronic Arts relies on inducing "addictive behavior" to generate huge revenues. According to Ramirez, the "predatory" Ultimate Team packages are designed to encourage players to gamble. Ramirez, who himself spent around $600 on the packages, believes that these de facto lootboxes are nothing more than a game of chance, an example of illegal gambling "device". Under Californian law, this includes machines, devices etc. requiring some form of payment in exchange for the chance to win something of value. According to Ramirez, UT packages fall within this definition: a computer or other multimedia device enables us to spend money to randomly win valuable players.
The reasoning behind the lawsuit may be questionable, depending on whether we consider virtual players to be valuable. This is precisely the issue rules on informing buyers of the chances of obtaining certain items.
