News

Norwegian Consumer Council claims Nintendo's "no refunds" policy on Switch eShop is not compliant with EU law

Nintendo says that it is fully compliant

Norwegian Consumer Council claims Nintendo's "no refunds" policy on Switch eShop is not compliant with EU law

The Norwegian Consumer Council has claimed that Nintendo's no refunds policy for pre-ordered games on its Switch eShop goes against EU law.

As reported by Kitguru, the council studied refund policies for digital game stores in late 2017, and found a term in the eShop's policies stating that all sales are final. No other terms were found regarding order cancellation.

The Norwegian Consumer Council took issue with this, as it appears to go against the EU's Consumer Rights Directive. The directive states that consumers don't have the right to cancel orders "if the supply of the digital content has begun".

Difference of opinion

The argument here is that the supply of a game has not begun until the game actually launches, and therefore pre-orders are exempt from this rule. The council sent a letter to Nintendo asking to explain the legal reasoning behind why it does not allow refunds on pre-orders.

In response, Nintendo released a short statement saying that "the operation of Nintendo eShop in Europe is fully compliant with European laws relating to the statutory rights of consumers."

Nintendo has sold nearly 15 million units of its Switch console as of January 2018. It has so far generated revenues of $7.88 billion for its FY18.


Editor

Ric is the Editor of PocketGamer.biz, having started out as a Staff Writer on the site back in 2015. He received an honourable mention in both the MCV and Develop 30 Under 30 lists in 2016 and refuses to let anyone forget about it.