Nintendo doesn’t have to refund digital preorders, according to European court

[Andrew]

Nintendo fans in Europe got some bad news this week. A new court ruling sided with Nintendo’s ongoing practice to not let users cancel digital preorders (via Nintendo Everything).

 

According to Norwegian gaming site PressFire, the consumer authorities of Norway and Germany sued Nintendo for not letting users cancel digital preorders purchased from the eShop. The case went to court at the end of last year. This week, the court ruled in favor of Nintendo, meaning it can continue the practice for now. PressFire reports that the German consumer authority has appealed the ruling.

 

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[ENTERPRISE]

Poor Judgement ! I could possibly understand the stance if the game had already been released and downloaded as that constitutes a completed transfer of sale in my mind. However as it is a pre-order and said consumer has not received the product in anyway shape or form....then a refund should be honoured.

[Andrew]

I do hope they are going back on this. This is no different to pre-ordering physical copies/hardware and then getting a refund on it. Something that's already a law, I know there's a 2 week minimum requirement to get a no questions asked refund in the EU. It's baffling why the judge decided digital software is different to physical software.

 

Not to mention the precedent it set. This now means that any other publisher/distributor can deny refunds on pre-orders for their digital games which is awful considering pretty much all games on PC are digital copies these days. Whether or not they actually do it is another story though.

[ENTERPRISE]

I do hope they are going back on this. This is no different to pre-ordering physical copies/hardware and then getting a refund on it. Something that's already a law, I know there's a 2 week minimum requirement to get a no questions asked refund in the EU. It's baffling why the judge decided digital software is different to physical software.

 

Not to mention the precedent it set. This now means that any other publisher/distributor can deny refunds on pre-orders for their digital games which is awful considering pretty much all games on PC are digital copies these days. Whether or not they actually do it is another story though.

 

The strange thing is software is software, whether it be a physical disk or a download makes no difference. The form factor should have no bearing at all as it has no effect on the software you are actually purchasing, it is nonsensical. Hopefully they go back on it, if they don't then hopefully other distributors take the moral high ground anyway.