Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Dec. 11 (Xinhua)-- A Canadian court has approved a class action lawsuit against Epic Games, the developer of Fortnite, alleging that the game is easily addictive and that Epic has not fulfilled its obligation to inform.

Calex L é gal, a Canadian law firm, was preparing to file a class action lawsuit against Epic Games as early as 2019, accusing it of "knowingly" developing a "very, very addictive game", "Fortnite", but the case has stalled since then as the court is evaluating whether the case should proceed.

However, according to Eurogamer, the court now seems to agree with the plaintiff that the claim "does not appear to be frivolous or apparently unfounded" and that although it is not certain whether Epic did it intentionally, the possibility that the game is addictive cannot be ruled out, and the developer of the game is assumed to be aware of the situation.

"when developing Fortnite, Epic Games hired psychologists to study how to make the game as addictive as possible," Alessandra Esposito Chartrand, a lawyer for Calex L é gal, said at the time. "they knowingly put a very, very addictive game on the market, and it was for young people."

Chartrand said Epic knew Fortnite was "as addictive as possible" and failed to warn players about the risks of addiction. He compared the case to a class action lawsuit against tobacco companies in 2015, and the Quebec Provincial High Court ruled that tobacco companies were not doing enough to warn users of the dangers of smoking. Therefore, the focus of this lawsuit is "very focused on the duty of disclosure".

The lawsuit was originally filed on behalf of the parents of two minors, aged 10 and 15, and later many parents joined the lawsuit, drawing on the World Health Organization's decision to classify play disorder as a disease.

Chartrand added: "in our case, two parents stood up and told us that if we knew it was so addictive and would ruin our children's lives, we wouldn't let them start playing Fortnite, or we would monitor it more closely."

CTOnews.com learned that before starting the game, users clicked on the agreed terms of use to waive the right to sue the company, but Chartrand found the terms of service "untenable in Quebec courts because the province's consumer protection bill requires companies to explicitly disclose risks associated with products or services."

"if we relate the facts alleged by the plaintiff's children to the statements made by some experts on video game addiction and other issues, we can lodge a claim against Fortnite, and the plaintiff has filed a valid product liability claim against the defendant," the court held. This claim does not seem to be hasty or groundless. "

"Fortnite has some very unique things, and there are psychological centers dedicated to addiction treatment for this game that other games don't have," Chartrand said.

Epic has 30 days to appeal the verdict.

Epic spokesman Natalie Munoz said: "We have industry-leading parental controls that enable parents to monitor their children's digital experience. Parents can receive playtime reports, monitor their children's weekly playtime, and need parental consent before buying games, so they can make decisions that suit their families. We also recently increased the default daily game time limit for players under the age of 13. We plan to fight it in court, and this recent decision only allows the case to continue. We believe that the evidence will show that the case is meaningless. "

Welcome to subscribe "Shulou Technology Information " to get latest news, interesting things and hot topics in the IT industry, and controls the hottest and latest Internet news, technology news and IT industry trends.