UFC-Que Choisir has given formal notice to the American video game publisher EA Games “to display the prices of the content it sells in its video games in euros”, and calls on Wednesday with 19 other European consumer associations to better regulation.
In a press release, the association indicates, with 19 of its European counterparts, calling “the authorities to put in place strict and effective regulation of the sector”, which would pass “by the prohibition of misleading designs, the establishment of additional protections for minors as well as the transparency of transactions”.
Everything is organized to make consumers forget the price of the content they pay.
The fact is highlighted that nearly 500 million consumers regularly play video games in Europe, that the market is booming but “does not benefit from specific and protective regulations even though most users are young people or adolescents, particularly vulnerable to cognitive biases”.
The issue of loot boxes
UFC-Que Choisir refers in particular to an analysis by the Norwegian Consumer Council (NCC) which looked into les « loot boxes »or “blind bags”, incorporated into many games and which consumers are encouraged to buy without knowing the content.
This report “highlights several breaches by publishers of European regulations”, in particular because they encourage them to “finally spend large sums of money”, via “aggressive marketing, numerous cognitive biases and probabilities of deceptive gains”. Additionally, they use “virtual currencies to hide or misrepresent the true costs of such content.”
The purchase of virtual currency to forget the price
UFC-Que Choisir also criticizes the video game industry for dividing the act of purchasing in-game content into two stages, by buying a defined quantity of virtual currency first, then spending this kitty.
“Everything is organized to make consumers forget the price of the content they pay”, regrets the association, which therefore gives formal notice to the publisher of successful games such as the Fifa, Battlefield or NHL series, to display the prices. in euros. Failing this, the association “will not fail to take legal action”.
According to the association, so-called “in-game” purchases, or “sales of additional digital content in the game” have become a major source of revenue for publishers, “generating more than 15 billion dollars in turnover in 2020”.
