The makers of Fortnite, Roblox and Minecraft say it would be a slippery slope for parents to argue that failing to remember to agree to terms and conditions is a valid defense against arbitration.
LOS ANGELES (CN) – Epic Games, Roblox and Microsoft asked a California judge on Tuesday to compel the mother of a 14-year-old to arbitrate her claims that their video games are designed to be addictive to minors and are therefore harmful to her child’s mental health.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Riff granted the defendants’ request after a six-hour hearing that revolved around the question of whether the child or their parents had entered into a contractual agreement to arbitrate any disputes with the companies, although they have said they do not recall doing so.
“I will issue a written decision,” the judge told the lawyers. “I don’t know how it’s going to turn out.”
of suit by Evette Gibson on behalf of her child, identified only by the initials IHG, is among about 40 cases consolidated in California state court seeking to hold the makers of Fortnite, Roblox and Xbox, as well as Microsoft subsidiary Mojang, which develops the Minecraft game, responsible for children’s forced use of their products.
Gibson’s suit is the first of the cases before Riff to test whether under California law plaintiffs can be forced into mandatory arbitration instead of taking their claims to a jury trial.
Ambika Kumar, a lawyer representing Microsoft, argued that it would mean the end of e-commerce if someone could get out of binding arbitration simply by claiming they don’t remember agreeing to the terms of use that are common to almost every online platform.
“To play a game on Xbox, you have to have a Microsoft account and an Xbox,” she told the judge. “And that requires you to agree to Microsoft’s services agreement.”
Allison Libeu, an attorney for Epic Games, also pointed out that playing Fortnite requires accepting the game’s end user license agreement and that IHG did so for multiple accounts they created.
Gibson’s three attorneys argued that evidence presented by the video game developers left it unclear who actually agreed to the companies’ terms of use, which they said undermined the defense’s position that a valid and enforceable contract had been created.
“They don’t know who the approved user is,” said Seth Katz, the attorney for the plaintiff who filed Roblox’s motion to compel. “The information is simply not there, and their conclusions are not supported.”
In it CALL to send the claims to arbitration, Epic Games cited half a dozen cases in federal court in recent years where similar video addiction claims had been sent to arbitration, despite arguments asserting minors’ lack of capacity, failure to assert user agreements and unconscionability.
Gibson’s lawsuit is part of the so-called Porta Video Game Addiction Litigation. These are games such as Fortnite and Roblox that are popular with children and are supposed to draw them into playing video games to the detriment of their emotional and social well-being.
Gibson said her child started playing video games when they were eight years old. She claims the child has developed a “disordered” relationship with video games and, as a result, suffers from severe emotional disturbances, reduced social interactions, lack of interest in other hobbies and withdrawal symptoms such as anger, rage and physical outbursts.
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