EA broke another country’s gambling laws in court.
As German publication GamesWirtschaft (opens in a new tab) reported last weekend (and translated by GamesIndustry.biz (opens in a new tab)), an Austrian court ruled that FIFA loot boxes violated the country’s gambling laws. The court ordered EA to immediately reimburse the affected players.
Surprisingly, this verdict stems from a lawsuit in 2022 in which a group of FIFA PlayStation players sued Sony over loot boxes. The reason for this is that the FIFA loot boxes were purchased through Sony’s PlayStation Store, so technically they had contracts with Sony for the loot boxes rather than EA.
According to the German outlet, 1,000 FIFA players in Austria have contacted Padronus, a law firm specializing in recovering money from online casinos. Some player claims amount to around €800, although extreme cases have been heard where players seek €8,500 back.
However, the Austrian court ordered Sony to only refund €338.26 to the players. Keep in mind that Sony can still appeal this decision, so this whole thing is neither over nor dusted off.
This isn’t the first time that FIFA, and by extension EA’s loot boxes, have broken national gaming laws. The Netherlands initially ruled in 2018 that the loot boxes violated their gaming laws and fined EA €10 million, although this was later overturned by another court ruling.
So don’t be surprised if this Austrian judgment also ends up being overturned in the future. It should be noted that this time, Sony is the defendant, while in the case of the Netherlands, EA was the one under the control of the court.
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