The ruling was the result of a 2022 lawsuit filed by a group of PlayStation-owning players against Sony.
An Austrian court has declared that FIFA's loot boxes breach the country's gambling regulations and ordered that impacted players receive a refund.
According to a German publication GamesWirtschaft, the district court of Hermagor has deemed FIFA Ultimate Team's card packs as illegal gambling as they give players the ability to sell cards on a secondary market, thus allowing players to profit from randomized items which hold some monetary value.
The ruling was the result of a lawsuit filed in 2022 by a group of FIFA players who owned PlayStation consoles. Interestingly, the group sued Sony and not Electronic Arts, the developer and publisher of FIFA. The reason for this is that players bought the loot boxes through the PlayStation Store, thereby making their purchase agreement with Sony.
As reported by GamesWirtschaft, Padronus, a legal firm that focuses on recovering losses incurred from internet-based casinos, stated that over 1,000 FIFA players have reached out to it seeking compensation of around €800, with certain exceptional cases reaching as high as €85,000.
Despite this, the court has ordered Sony to refund payments amounting to €338.26. It should be noted that this ruling is not yet definitive and Sony can challenge the decision.
Loot boxes have long been a debatable topic, with a number of authorities stating that this system is manipulative and even "predatory". In Netherlands and Belgium, loot boxes are banned by the countries' legislation. Due to this, for example, Diablo Immortal didn't release in those regions.
Multiple consumer groups around the world also try to fight against loot box mechanics – in June last year, 20 consumer groups in 18 European countries backed the Norwegian Consumer Council's report on the "deceptive design" and "misleading probabilities" of loot boxes in video games. Most recently, European Parliament voted to adopt a report requesting the European Commission to address loot boxes and other manipulating practices in video games.
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