Consumer protection organisations filed a complaint with the European Commission on Thursday 12 September against the “unfair practices” of seven companies. They are said to be pushing players, especially young ones, to spend.
The game is over. The European Commission has received a complaint against “unfair practices” video game publishers, filed this Thursday, September 12 by consumer protection organizations. There are seven in the crosshairs: Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Epic Games (Fortnite), Supercell (Clash of Clans), Electronic Arts (EA Sports FC 24), Mojang Studios et Roblox Corporation. These companies are being accused of using virtual currencies in their games, in the form of gems or coins, and therefore of misleading consumers to push them to spend more.
Let’s take the example of Fortnite and its virtual currency, the “V-Bucks”: for 1000 V-Bucks, you have to pay 8.99 euros. However, on the game interface, you must first click on the icon that displays the said 1,000 V-Bucks to then see their real price. It is this misleading practice that the complainant organizations are criticizing. Agustin Reyna, Director General of the European Consumer Unions Bureau (BEUC), agrees. According to him, virtual currencies “deliberately mislead” players, especially the youngest. The associations are thus demanding that the prices of objects sold within the games be expressed only “in real currency“They call on the authorities to “ensure that companies follow the rules” and want stricter legislation in the years to come.
40 euros per month
Beuc has joined forces with 22 member organisations from 17 countries, including UFC-Que Choisir in France, Vzbv in Germany, Testachats in Belgium and the FRC in Switzerland, to alert the European Commission to these practices.Companies are well aware of the vulnerability of children and are using tricks to encourage young consumers to spend more” says Agustin Reyna.
Today, just over one in two Europeans entertain themselves with video games, a rate that rises to 84% among 11-14 year-olds. These 61 million children spend nearly 40 euros per month on in-app purchases, according to Beuc. A real boon for publishers: in 2020, in-game purchases generated more than 50 billion dollars (46 billion euros) and their share of publishers’ revenues has continued to increase in recent years, according to Beuc.
Agustin Reyna laments: “Players shouldn’t need a calculator every time they want to make an informed decision about how much they want to spend. […]. Deceptive practices must stop.”
