EA Changes Origin Terms of Services, Forbids Class Action Lawsuits

[Shycte]

Quite frankly i'm disgusted that the Supreme Court has stated this kind of corporate bullsh*t is enforceable. Thank God I live in the UK.

Aye, for once the EU comes through for us!

It might have costed us billions, but finaly someone who isn't a farmer can make use for EU. This is the happiest day of my life.

Small but important point. Class actions, as used in the US, are not legal in the EU anyway. Class actions and US and parts of Canada only. So the EU, which in now going to cost Trillions not billions, does absolutely nothing.

Aren't you contradicting yourself now? EU forbids these lawsuits, but doesn't help in making them illegal? Okay?....

 

[StrixMaxima]

Blame the judge who, somehow, considered that this holds water. Companies simply abuse to the fullest extent of the law, since Law was created.

A modicum of common sense from the Supreme Court would quickly dismiss this as an abusive clause. But, since I don't live in the US, meh.

 

[Beryl77]

I think I once tried to read the ToS of a game when I was a kid. It was one of the first games I've installed on a PC and I thought that you have to do that and that there is something improtant written in there, or at least important enough that I care. That was about the only time I tried to read it, didn't even get half way through before I stopped and just agreed.
Anyway, good thing I live in Switzerland and don't have to throw my legal rights out of the window with one mouse click, sucks for the other people though.

 

[NLS]

I've recently bought the Tiger Woods PGA 2012 game. When I saw "Origin" during installation, I clicked "DECLINE" and took the game back to the store. The ToS of the actual game differs from Origin's ToS. Having to use another service to play games I've bought in a store is annoying enough (Steam is different, since I buy the game through it), but having them changing the ToS of said service is... This is the first time I ever return a game to the store and I'll never touch an Origin title again.

Steam does this...all the time. In fact I had to struggle with Steam Support for days to play my storebought copy of Dead Island because of a CD key problem.

So...to praise Steam on the one hand then slam Origin for something Steam does too is ridiculous.

Good thing we still have people like you with a bit of common sense. I've been a Steam-fan for years, but that doesn't make me hate and bash Origin anything more. Heck, I used Origin a bit yesterday, just to download a demo and register some of my EA games (that I had bought on Steam) there. And although it wasn't the most polished piece of work I've used, the fact that I can't use a class action lawsuit against them didn't make my experience any worse.
As long as they don't come into your house and rob you of all your hard-copy games, I'm pretty sure they're not into being full-heartedly "evil". And as long as that doesn't happen (I mean, come on) everyone should be on the safe side, no matter if you can or cannot go and sue them with a horde of others that found a loophole in their ToS.

 

[mattaui]

Anyone who is shocked by this has clearly not read a contract that they've signed or agreed to in the last twenty years, or longer. The move towards arbitration has been underway for quite some time, and it's extremely commonplace now in commercial agreements. The vast majority of class action lawsuits are jackpots for the plaintiff's bar and do little to help the consumer. That this is somehow an issue of consumer rights is quite laughable. But please, let the manufactured internet rage circus carry on.

 

[XT inc]

I watched that HBO documentary called "Hot Coffee" About the 90's and how everyone got tricked into thinking people were Lawsuit Happy Or Jackpot justice etc.

Apparently People got trolled by buisness groups running campaigns under the guise of being from a community i.e I.e the people of ohio think this guy is who you should vote for. So now there are all these politians who get you to help bend the law so corperations can fuck you over.

So now thanks to misleading ads and stratagies there are caps on damages, so if you get crippled and need care for live to pay for nurses med costs, rehab etc that could literally cost millions you will get like 200 grand.

Contracts have stuff written in them that you can't sue, or have public hearings, and most likely the company decides who looks over the case.

Once again I only know what a picked up from that doc and a senior highschool law course. But shis shit is rediculous. People need to be able to sue to keep these people in check.

all because some old ladie burnt the flesh off her bones in a mcdonalds parking lot, in the passenger seat, and the cup tip over blistering her thighs. causing the need for major skin graphs, and ending her ability to work and take care of herself.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Well... Another reason not to get Origin or Origin powered games. Goodbye EA. I will not being doing business with you by purchasing your games on the computer until you stop what you are doing and clean this up.

 

[Zenn3k]

Pretty soon, they'll just update the ToS to require you to purchase more of their products and they can sue you for not doing so.

This is really bad. But good to know I won't be using Origin.

 

[Harmondale2]

America! Land of the free!

Seriously? What happened to America? Now they're just giving their right away?

 

[rayen020]

Playstation network
EA origin
XBox Live Arcade
Steam

slowly ticking off the digital media distributors i will use. It's almost like companies don't want me to play their games. Seems an odd business strategy.

Also I don't know why but when i read the headline i thought, Hey maybe EA isn't totally evil and rolled back that "tracks everything your computer does angle." Wow how wrong can you get? Oh, EA will you ever cease to prove that you are unambiguously evil?

There are some limitations; you're exempt from these restrictions if you happen to live in Quebec, Russia, Switzerland or the Member States of the European Union, which apparently take a dim view on allowing people to forfeit their legal rights with a blind click-through...

I look at this and just think what reason is there to live in the US anymore? The landscape is moving towards corporate ownership, no consumer or worker rights. And the Right wing politicos want this. Yes the government has taxes just to screw you. Not to build roads hire firefighters/police, keep public order, pay civil servants and above all PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS. but government is bad business is good lets get rid of the government.

sorry for the threadjack just got into a ranting mood for a second and couldn't help myself. will not respond to quotes intended to start political flamewar.

 

[tzimize]

Two thumbs up for living in a Member State of the EU, this wont mean anything to 99% of its users but its a worrying precedent

Heh. I'm from Norway and afaik you cant "sign away" your rights here either.

Sane legal systems ftw. USA...land of the free...I loled.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

Next thing they'll do is include a clause that let's John Riccitiello come into your bed at night and silently slip his "sausage" in your mouth... enjoy that mental image.

 

[The-Epicly-Named-Man]

Quite frankly i'm disgusted that the Supreme Court has stated this kind of corporate bullsh*t is enforceable. Thank God I live in the UK.

Aye, for once the EU comes through for us!

It might have costed us billions, but finaly someone who isn't a farmer can make use for EU. This is the happiest day of my life.

Well, for someone who already isn't a rich cattle farmer. Anyone who wasn't already making money or was a homemade-cheese maker got f*cked over.

 

[Atmos Duality]

I hope everyone realizes how this throws open the doors for legalized corporate fraud.
Seriously. There is not a single benefit or measure of security for the customer here.

 

[aashell13]

Another excellent reason not to touch origin with a ten-foot pole.

 

[Braedan]

Gamers are fucking pussies. And god damn retarded.

We see a company trying to make us forfeit rights and get a little miffed, then go bend over and buy all the company's crap.
We see hats for sale and we FLIP A SHIT.
We petition for the stupidest shit, then do nothing when companies actually try to attack us.

No one is standing up for themselves and it's creating an industry where it's ok to lock people out of their products, and refuse refunds for broken, buggy games.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Data Protection Act 1998 [http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/29/contents]. Check and mate I believe.

 

[Albino Boo]

Quite frankly i'm disgusted that the Supreme Court has stated this kind of corporate bullsh*t is enforceable. Thank God I live in the UK.

Aye, for once the EU comes through for us!

It might have costed us billions, but finaly someone who isn't a farmer can make use for EU. This is the happiest day of my life.

Small but important point. Class actions, as used in the US, are not legal in the EU anyway. Class actions and US and parts of Canada only. So the EU, which in now going to cost Trillions not billions, does absolutely nothing.

Aren't you contradicting yourself now? EU forbids these lawsuits, but doesn't help in making them illegal? Okay?....

I suggest you try a course in English comprehension. I said they aren't legal, not illegal and at no point did I say that were made illeagel by EU law. The member states of the EU have at no point made legislation enabling class action law suits in the same manner as the US and parts of Canada. So to reiterate, for the hard of thinking, the EU does nothing and has never done anything what so ever about class action law suits.

 

[drkchmst]

Won't ever use origin anyway. I tried eadm once when they tried giving away mass effect 2 but I couldn't get it to work for anything. I don't trust ea's ability to make a download manager or estore client

 

[theultimateend]

And so it begins... before long, this will be considered standard, and people will not give a crap because it doesn't matter at the time. This pretty much seals it. I'm never using Origin again... not that I ever did before.

Yeah, non-issue for me.

Origin is laughable.

I spent 2 hours trying to get access to EA games I bought (sims 3 stuff) and gave up. They can eat it.