Brazilian children’s association joins fight against loot boxes

Brazil’s Association of Centres for the Defence of Children’s and Adolescents’ Rights (ANCED) files multiple lawsuits against gaming platforms and creators for loot boxes

ANCED will be filing multiple lawsuits in the fight against loot boxes, targeting Activision Blizzard, EA Games, Nintendo, Riot Games, Ubisoft and Valve Corporation. Valve Corporation has the world renowned Steam platform under their umbrella.

The lawsuits have been filed with the District Court for Children and Youth in the Distrito Federal – home to Brazil’s central government.
The mentioned companies are not the only organisations being targeted through these lawsuits as Apple, Microsoft, Google and Sony are also having lawsuit filed against them.

ANCED extended this lawsuit to Apple, Microsoft, Google and Sony since these organisations host a number of games on their platforms.

The lawsuits are seeking an outright ban on the loot boxes and also a monetary damage reward of BRL19.5bn due to ‘collective and individual moral damages.’

Recently, there has been some progress on controlling the loot box phenomena and it seems that pressure is increasing as Spain and Brazil are now the latest countries to try and ban loot boxes.

The Dirección General de Ordenación del Juego (DGOJ), the Spanish gambling regulator, has launched a consultation regarding loot boxes. This consultation will decide whether loot boxes should be subject to new regulations, classifying it under gambling products or banned outright.

The cause for concern regarding these loot boxes is due to Spain’s Gambling Act. Under the act gambling is described as involving payment for participation, chance in determining the result and a prize transferred to the winner.

With increasing pressure to control gambling and addictions, more jurisdictions may impose new ruleson the use of loot boxes might be around the corner.

Source: Igamingbusiness

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