EU: Game buggy? Get money back!

[calapine]

EU Commission proposes new Game Software "guarantee"

Meglena Kuneva (consumer protection commissioner) is airing ideas about a 2-year warranty for games, including things like a refund for game breaking bugs...

Helen Kearns, spokesperson for Meglena Kuneva, said the commissioners wanted to kick start a dialogue with the software industry.

"The current status quo, where licensed products are exempt from EU law, is unsatisfactory," she said.

At present, retailers are not obliged to give a refund on a video game that has a bug or glitch that prevents a user completing a game. If the proposals become law, this could change as users would have the right "to get a product that works with fair commercial conditions".

Ms Kearns accepted that this assumes honesty on the part of users and that the system could be abused by people playing the game for a few weeks and then taking it back with a fraudulent fault.

"On the one hand there is the risk of abuse, but on the other it's not a good enough reason to say basic consumer protection should not apply."

Companies don't like it of course:

The Business Software Alliance, which represents many software firms, including Apple and Microsoft, said the proposals - in their current form - would not work.

"Digital content is not a tangible good and should not be subject to the same liability rules as toasters. It is contractually licensed to consumers and not sold.

I am not sure if this is  or    altough the idea of getting my money back for Kotor II does sound appealing.

Edit: Read this article 10 mins ago and still grinning! I'll love to see how this ends up! 

[schild]

It's facepalm. There's no way to verify it. It's incredibly, incredibly dumb. You could just return EVERYTHING.

Ms Kearns accepted that this assumes honesty on the part of users and that the system could be abused by people playing the game for a few weeks and then taking it back with a fraudulent fault.

Kearns is a naive idiot who will only regret this. It's not "could be" it's "will be" - by everyone.

[Azazel]

Wrongo, Schild.

Whether this works or not. Plenty of people buy software even though it'd be pitifully easy to get pirated stuff.

[schild]

Whether this works or not. Plenty of people buy software even though it'd be pitifully easy to get pirated stuff.

Duh? I never said otherwise.

[Dion]

In Sweden it's possible to return games that doesn't work properly already. Sometimes you even get a 10 day trial period so if you beat the game you can return it and get a full refound (this is rare nowdays but a couple of years ago it was everywhere).

[Teleku]

Most places in the US used to let you return a game if you just walked in the door and said "It doesn't work on my system."  Then of course everybody started buying games, burning copies, and returning them for a different one in an endless cycle, so the stores started cracking down.  All this law would do is force retailers into allowing the above scenario.

Also:


 

That's a poster I'd expect to see next to Colbert.

[Tarami]

In Sweden it's possible to return games that doesn't work properly already. Sometimes you even get a 10 day trial period so if you beat the game you can return it and get a full refound (this is rare nowdays but a couple of years ago it was everywhere).

Never heard of. Are you referring to open purchases?

[Dion]

In Sweden it's possible to return games that doesn't work properly already. Sometimes you even get a 10 day trial period so if you beat the game you can return it and get a full refound (this is rare nowdays but a couple of years ago it was everywhere).

Never heard of. Are you referring to open purchases?

Yeah. Game had it but they where bought by some other company shortly after they stopped that policy iirc.

[Azazel]

EB Games in Australia already has this (for 7 days).