Ah, children. A recurring battleground in court, a strong argument to demonstrate the predatory mechanisms used by game-services to suck up all their pocket money. Epic Games had already been fined a total of $520 million in 2022 for having – among other crimes – collected the data of children under 13 on Fortnite without parental consent. Imagine that HoYoverse is today condemned for the same reasons. Although the final fine is much less steep.
For having collected the personal data of children under the age of 13 and violating the COPPA law (which protects the privacy of minors online) through Genshin ImpactHoYoverse must pay 20 million dollars to American justice. A drop in the commercial ocean of up to Chinese since it has accumulated 5 billion in 40 months of operation (figures from February 2024). Suffice to say that management must be snickering.
However, the FTC is also implementing an interesting new measure. HoYoverse will no longer be able to sell lootbox to minors aged 16 or under. Remember that while 16 years of age does not technically mark legal majority in the United States, it remains an important milestone where minors can legally emancipate themselves or obtain their driver's license. “ Genshin Impact convinced children, teens, or other users to spend hundreds of dollars on rewards they had virtually no chance of obtaining. Companies that use these dark pattern methods are responsible when they mislead players, particularly children and adolescents, about the true cost of in-game transactions. “, denounces Samuel Levine, head of consumer protection at the FTC.
The FTC notably considered that Genshin Impact intentionally blurs the lines and the chances of obtaining in-game with complicated probabilities and several layers of virtual currencies which prevent players from understanding the real value of their spending. The federal agency also ruled that HoYoverse particularly targeted young children with colorful advertisements, friendly-looking influencers and limited-time banners that encourage purchases within a short period of time.
-Previously, in September 2024, the UFC-Que Choisir association filed a complaint at European level with around twenty other organizations to denounce the obscure market of virtual currencies at stake. However, Genshin Impact was not directly targeted in the complaint, although any possible change in legislation will necessarily ricochet back to the Chinese giant.
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